'Struggling to get the position and struggling to keep it': how women become trade union leaders

摘要

The study sought to understand the journey through which women travel in order to becomeudtrade union leaders in an environment that is male dominated. Through an analysis of theudexceptional women who are trade union leaders, it looked into their motivations to becomeudtrade union leaders, the steps they take, the struggles they face, and the mechanism whichudthey employ to successfully overcome the barriers to their rise to top hierarchies of tradeudunions. This qualitative study identified the limiting factors to women’s involvement in tradeudunions as leaders and simultaneously identified the positive forces that support them theudopportunities that exist for trade unions to foster and strengthen the integration of womenudleaders.udParticipants in the study were trade union officials from COSATU affiliates: nine wereudwomen with leadership positions at national level and six were gender coordinators from theudtrade unions (one was a man). The women leaders had experience of trade union activism foruda number of years ranging from four to twenty-eight. The study employed an in depthudinterview method where all the interviews with participants were carried out face to face.udThere were two separate interview schedules; one for the women leaders and one for genderudcoordinators.udThis study contributed to the body of existing knowledge about women in trade unions. Itudconfirms other studies’ findings that in addition to women’s personal attributes there areudopportunities for trade unions to promote women’s leadership but they remain weak inudimplementing strategies for increasing the participation of women as leaders and areudhampered by the persistence of male culture and bureaucracy which disadvantages women