Women's Participation in the New South Wales Teachers Federation

Abstract

In proportion to their numbers in the membership of the New South Wales Teachers Federation, the representation of women at the senior decision-making and administrative levels of the union is low, a situation common amongst unions in Australia and overseas. In 1982, a postal survey was conducted on 1000 women members of the Federation, measuring a total of 67 socio-demographic, behavioural, attitudinal and personality variables. The group surveyed was so composed to enable a comparison between activists, all women who met a set of criteria for activism cast in terms of membership of decision-making bodies and attendance at meetings as established before the survey, and inactivists, a sample drawn from the remainder of the female membership in proportions representative of its structure in terms of twelve categories of employment status. The Federation woman activist of today has much in common with a broad spectrum of trade unionists past and present, but important new influences are relative freedom from a variety of domestic pressures, and acceptance of a range of feminist values.