Female union exclusions

The deepening of gender inequalities in labor world and institutions of union power

Abstract

What explains the distance between women participation in labor market and women participation in power spaces? To what extent is the exercise of gender equality possible in structures that reinforce socialization in traditional feminine roles such as trade unions? In this paper we study the forms of women participation in unions and the conditions for equal practices of access to management and decision spaces, understood as the right to participate in management in institutional spheres that crystallize circuits of power building and reproduction.

First, we analyze how the separation of public and private spheres made the sexual division of labor. Secondly, we ask ourselves in what way the androcentric condition of Law operates by constructing that unique way of being a woman, traversed by various axes of subordination that reinforces the stratification in society. Third, from a critical perspective on gender justice and the full exercise of women's citizenship, we investigate the distance between women participation in highly feminized work areas and their presence in power institutions that reinforce sexist practices, such as unions. Finally, we include the experience of the women's assemblies that took place towards the International Strike on March 8, 2018 to think about aspects of the exercise of power from a feminist perspective