Problems of women participation in unions

The study of African trade unionism is much more than a survey of industrial organization. It is a study of African societies, the course of their different struggles against imperial rule and the consequences for the pattern of political and economic power. In some states the trade unions contribute a major element of established authority, gathering the energies and loyalties of labour for the promotion of government policies; in others, they comprise the command of resistance, exciting, representing and directing opposition in the absence of any other effective political force but the party in power; in others, they concern themselves overwhelmingly with promoting the interests of their members, on the pattern of collective bargaining. They appear sometimes as a force for fundamental change; sometimes as a force against it; sometimes, as cut off from the main flow of social effort, a tributary trickling away into the ground. The claim of the trade unions in Africa, and Zimbabwe in particular, to speak significantly for female labour must itself be examined. This paper does not lay claim to a complete or comprehensive understanding of the problem of Women Participation in Trade Unions. It simply is an attempt to analyse the mechanisms perpetuating the subordination of women in society and some of the social problems posing obstacles to women’s participation in trade unions and development within the large society.

A ZIDS seminar paper on the challenges and obstacles faced by women participation in trade and labour unions. Originally presented at the ZIDS Seminar on: The Training and Research Needs Of Trade Unions in Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe, 5-9th December, 1983