(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Pat Daley/Straight Goods/CALM
For the first time, women outnumber men in the rank‑and‑file of Canadian unions. But before we start popping champagne corks, know that the new numbers released by Statistics Canada don't necessarily mean women are joining unions in droves or, even more importantly, that their growing numbers are changing unions.
In the first half of this year union membership included 2,248,000 women - 30 per cent of the workforce - and 2,237,200 men - 29.3 per cent according to StatsCan.
Unionization rates are even higher in the public sector - almost 72 per cent compared with 17 per cent in the private sector - where women are more likely to be employed in administration, social services, education and health care. Indeed, within the public sector, more women are unionized than men - 73 per cent compared to 68 per cent. In the private sector, only 12 per cent of women belong to unions, compared to 21 per cent of men.
The shift in gender balance certainly reflects, in part, a declining manufacturing sector and increased employment in health, education and social services. But, is whether the overall change having an effect on unions and their leadership? After all, in recent years we have seen high‑profile women leaders - like Judy Darcy from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Leah Casselman from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Nycole Turmel from the Public Service Alliance of Canada - all step down, to be replaced by men.
Certainly we've seen a change in awareness from 30 years ago, when only 10 per cent of female workers belonged to unions. For years now, unions have been leaders in campaigns for national childcare, for public health care, for increased minimum wage and any number of other issues that directly affect women workers. Most unions have women's programs or equity departments and take proposals like pay equity and workplace violence prevention to the bargaining table.
Yet, ask the public, and even union members, who they think belong to unions and they're more likely to imagine a burly, male miner than the woman who provides home care to their elderly parents. And union culture is still a macho culture, based on confrontation, often acrimonious debate and, for activists and staff, long hours away from home and family.
Like many other unions, CUPE has seen growth in the number of female members - now at about 67 per cent, but the leadership at the provincial and national levels has remained primarily male. Only three of the 23‑member national executive board are women.
CUPE created the National Women's Task Force two years ago, after delegates to that convention defeated a resolution that would have created two short‑term designated seats for women on the board. They voted instead to create the task force.
The 54 recommendations in the task force's report cover everything from holding a women's bargaining conference to creating new seats on the national board to developing new education, leadership and mentoring programs.
When the task force took its report to provincial division conventions in the spring, CUPE's Quebec division voted to institute gender parity for its vice‑president positions on the national board. In British Columbia, for the first time, women won all four provincial vice‑president positions. And women's caucuses were held for the first time at six of the 10 conventions.
Women told the task force they are often uncomfortable with the loud, aggressive and confrontational behaviour that's associated with union events. Combined with the "all or nothing" commitment that's usually expected from activists and leaders and a tradition of not challenging incumbents and backroom deals on succession, leadership starts to feel like a big turnoff for women members, especially women of colour and Aboriginal women.
But there are many, women among them, who will argue that it's exactly the aggressive behaviour that helps unions win at the bargaining table. And, just like in the wider world, there are female unionists who will never vote for change that they believe will see them win leadership positions "just because" they are women.
So, more women in unions - that's a good thing. More women in leadership would be even better.
(Pat Daley is a CUPE communications officer.)