Austerity, union policy and gender equality bargaining

Linda Briskin

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2014, vol. 20, issue 1, 115-133

Abstract: Inattention to the gender implications of austerity measures, and coincident cuts in gender equality structures by state, employers and often unions themselves threaten gender equality measures and equality bargaining. These threats are compounded by the reconfiguring of the language of equality which is now re-focused on class inequalities, on the one hand, and an expanded range of equality-seeking groups, on the other. The language of equality no longer adequately captures trends in gender equality. Intersectionality (compound discrimination) is explored as a reference point for bargaining equality. Austerity measures are also reshaping the household-workplace-community nexus, re-invoking outdated and conservative views of women’s place, reconfiguring the positioning of women’s rights, and, to some extent, engineering women’s return to the household. This article argues that unions need to radicalize discourses around the household-workplace-community nexus, and explores gendered social unionism as an alternative progressive frame for equality bargaining. It concludes that bargaining for equality may support not only a revival of innovative collective bargaining but also union revitalization.

Keywords: Bargaining for equality; gender equality bargaining; collective bargaining; austerity; social unionism; intersectionality; union renewal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1024258913515161 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:20:y:2014:i:1:p:115-133

DOI: 10.1177/1024258913515161

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().