The Gender Gap in Union Leadership in Australia: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Women make up close to half of all trade unionists in Australia, but senior leadership positions and the culture of unions evade a corresponding feminization. Through interviews and focus groups with women at various levels of the paid official hierarchy across a diverse group of unions organizing in different sectors, this article reports on the representation of women in the senior and strategic leadership positions of unions. Despite high levels of commitment to union work and enjoyment of many aspects of the job, women working within the union movement keenly feel that they are under-represented in senior roles and they view sexism and a ‘masculinist’ culture as alive and well within unions. They believe that this has a strong impact on union ‘business’, such as union collective bargaining agendas.