Women as the Paradigmatic Trade Unionists? New Work, New Workers and New Trade Union Strategies in Conservative Britain

Abstract

The British labor movement has responded to a lengthy period of economic restructuring, state hostility and a consequent decline in union membership and influence, with a wide-ranging strategic reevaluation of the relationship between women and trade unions. It is primarily the nature of the locations in the labor market occupied by women, and not the specific interests or experience that women bring to collective organization or action at work, that has driven British union strategy. As a result, the major strategic union innovation of the past decade has been an enhanced emphasis upon legislation, as both a substitute and a support for trade union action.