157–72. equality diversity and inclusion at work

Encounters between gender and labour politics 281 union movement ‘necessarily unsettles, disrupts and potentially overturns’ these p. 15. And the need to try to maintain a balance between the autonomy of women and diversity self-organising and integration into the mainstream is theorised by Linda Briskin 1993, 1999, and illustrated by Briskin and many of those researchers already mentioned. Now I am involved in new research, about union leadership, which builds on this learning and which I hope will continue to extend and develop these forms of feminist praxis. Funded by the UK’s Union Modernisation Fund, 4 the project straddles both union mainstream mod- ernisation, and transformation for women and BME groups. Overall it ‘aims to develop existing and future leaders of the GFTU and its ai liated unions, who in turn will modernise and transform the unions’ cultures and structures to include, develop and empower women, and black and minority ethnic leaders’ Ledwith and Jackson 2007. The project has been driven and informed by the evidence that although just over half of TUC trade union members are women, and members of BME groups have been increasingly joining unions, UK trade union leadership is overwhelmingly male and white, including in GFTU union ai liates. The resulting demo- cratic diversity dei cit in relation to gender and raceethnicity, calls for new strategies for developing future leaders, especially from these under- represented groups, and for these leaders to undertake the modernisation of union structures and cultures. It also points to the need for modernisa- tion of trade union leadership approaches more generally in relation to gender, raceethnicity and diversity. The project aims to do this through a three-part programme. First, through participative research, to investigate and identify key modern leadership skills, knowledge and related issues, including those of gender and diversity. Second, to use the i ndings to provide the basis for a prototype for a multi-part leadership development programme for UK trade unionists. Third, to train a cadre of trainers to roll out the programme and continue to update it. The programme will provide the groundwork for the development of a sustainable programme of trade union leadership development within the GFTU and for the wider UK union movement Ledwith and Jackson 2007. This programme aims therefore to incorporate all four key aspects identii ed above in the development of an alternative and inclusive union democracy: formation of movement intellectuals, developments of argu- ments of social justice and equity, empowerment of the disadvantaged, and forms of mobilising. It will partly draw on the model of feminist praxis – where this chapter began, and in doing so will speak to the development of a strategy of counter hegemony and transformation in relation to trade union leadership. Leadership of labour movements remain deeply mascu- linised, hierarchical and exclusive Briskin 2006; Ledwith and Cain 2007. 282 Equality, diversity and inclusion at work If trade unions are to move forwards in the project of renewal, this could be a long moment; a juncture where the will for renewal results in the for- mulation of new forms of union leadership. NOTES With thanks especially to Dr Lise Lotte Hansen, and to the Ruskin MA International Labour and Trade Union Studies students. 1. Hegemony is a cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading posi- tion in social life through spontaneous consent, and thus legitimation, by the masses Gramsci 1971. Establishing an alternative or counter hegemony requires a vanguard of intellectuals and political activists to organise around a political programme based on attracting dif erent social forces and building new social relationships ibid.. 2. There is not space to consider this further here, but broadly, transformation can be seen as the ‘longest feminist revolution’ Mitchell 1971 or Gramscian permanent revolution; revolution as process, involving evolving ideological, structural and cultural change towards an inclusionary democracy which recognises diversity rights, ensures proportional representation and redistributes union power and resources. A long agenda Cockburn 1991; and see Ledwith and Colgan 2002. 3. I use this term to include women who would not necessarily describe themselves as femi- nists Colgan and Ledwith 1996, and male supporters, to denote those who nevertheless favour equality probably liberal measures and who are active in furthering gender equity and social justice. 4. ‘Trade union leadership development’, to be carried out by General Federation of Trade Unions GFTU, jointly with Ruskin College, Oxford. Union Modernisation Fund award 2007. REFERENCES Anderson, J. and Siim, B. eds 2000, Gender and Citizenship: Politics and Agency in France, Britain and Denmark, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Briskin, L. 1993, ‘Union women and separate organizing’, in L. Briskin and P. McDermott eds, Women Challenging Unions, Feminism, Democracy and Militancy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 89–108. Briskin, L. 1999, ‘Autonomy, diversity and integration, union women’s sepa- rate organizing in North America and Western Europe in the context of restructuring and globalization’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 22 5, 543–54. Briskin, L. 2006, ‘Victimisation and agency: the social construction of union women’s leadership’, Industrial Relations Journal, 37 4, 359–79. Buci-Glucksmann, C. 1982, ‘Hegemony and consent’, in A. Showstack Sassoon ed., Approaches to Gramsci, London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative Society, pp. 116–27. Cockburn, C. 1991, In the Way of Women, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Cockburn, C. 1995, Women and the European Social Dialogue: Strategies for Gender Democracy, Equal Opportunities Unit, European Commission, V546595-EN.