Mujeres y sindicalismola participación de las mujeres en el movimiento sindical en el marco de jerez

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women participation in social and labor history has traditionally been neglected and silenced. Specific mentions in labor relations academic literature has usually been vicar, mainly present through their husbands, fathers or bothers. In general terms and except for some rare occasions, as secondary actors. This social and historical attribution of lack of agency in women has been maintained until today. There are very few visible women in power positions in Trade Unions in Spain today. This fact produces negative consequences for women welfare and their labor rights, due to the insufficient representation in collective bargaining ambits. Thus, it is predictable that precarious labor market situation for women will not improve, unless equality conditions related to the presence and decision making in Trade Unions ameliorate The primary objective of this thesis is to make visible, emphasize and analyze the participation of women in Trade Unions, as well as to recover and vindicate the role played by women in workers’ movement. The time frame of this research is from the late Francoism until now, and the geographical frame corresponds to the Sherry Area, in the South of Spain, in the province of Cádiz. The representativeness of this territory in labor movement has already been studied, as it responds to the national dynamics in terms of social, economic and political processes. At the same time, there are wide nets of autonomous unionism structures in the wine industry and the different productive and services sectors, since the decade of the sixties (Foweraker, 1991). The foundations of the theoretical frame that sustain this doctoral research are four conceptual approaches which contribute to explain, from diverse and complementary perspectives, the inequality of women in society and organizations in general, and particularly in Trade Unions. Joan Acker is taken as preeminent author and her conception of inequality regimes (Acker 2006b; Healy, Tatli, Ipek et al., 2018). Other approaches also shape the theoretical analysis: intersectionality as a theory and instrument itself, initiated by Creenshaw (Davis, 2008; Nash 2008; Hebson and Holgate, 2009); Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, and finally the Gramscian approach and subaltern identities as subjects of political change. (Green, 2002; Danielli, 2006). This thesis specially examines the forms of participation, the protest repertories and the fundamental perceived differences regarding women and men activism. It also pays attention to the obstacles women had and have to face to fully integrate in labor organizations. This analysis has been developed with a qualitative methodology, using the ethnographic method and the narratives of women belonging to diverse ideological spectrum in different historic periods: the late Francoism, the Transition period and the present time, both in masculinized and feminized sectors. During these periods, women have had an active role and were main actors in the struggles, considering two separate perspectives: as wives of men unionists, involved in the militancy during late Francoism, and as women unionist workers in the visible and wage labor market. In spite of their motivation for social action and union activism being equal to that of men, the essential obstacles for women participation are still linked with the hegemonic masculine model as universal pattern to access to power and decision-making spaces. The Trade Union ambit is a multiplying mirror of labor market inequalities. Trade Unions still respond to a sexual division of work, where the phenomena of undervaluation, underrepresentation and horizontal and vertical segregation are general dynamics, in spite of social, political and legal changes in gender issues. These dynamics are associated to the imperative need for women (and not men) of balancing work, family and union life, where masculinity prevailing models discourage women participation.