Union brokerage and the gender gap in the labor market: A cross-national comparative study of associational networks and gendered labor force participation in OECD countries

Abstract

This article explores the role of union-centered brokerage in promoting women’s labor force participation in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for the last three decades. Using two measures of brokerage, a union’s core brokerage role, and its general brokerage role, we attempted to capture the processes by which union activists mobilize and extend women’s rights in associational fields. Then, we tested our key argument that union-centered brokerage plays the most effective role among the different brokerage types in channeling women’s interests by transforming them into wider class-linked or cross-class concerns. Cross-national and comparative case studies demonstrate that union-led brokerage promotes greater presence of women in the economy. Our findings revealed that, when controlling for economic, regional, and cultural factors, both types of brokerage roles impact women’s participation in the labor market and their participation compared to that of men. The overall findings underscore the importance of creating and utilizing solidarity structures through effective channeling mechanisms in civic associational fields between labor-based organizations and other reform-oriented civic groups in achieving egalitarian socioeconomic goals.