Debates about women’s participation, representation, and leadership in trade unions frequently focus on the role of separate organizing. This article examines the historical use of separate organizing by women and its effect in an Australian state peak union, the Victorian Trades Hall Council (THC). Adoption of different forms of separate organizing in the 1910s, in particular autonomous organizing through women-only unions, transformed the gender profile of the THC. A subsequent shift in union strategy to support for industrial unionism led to union amalgamations, which saw the absorption of most of the women’s unions by the 1920s. The key issue is the degree to which this separate organizing campaign had an ongoing influence through the interwar years. In particular, the article looks at the experiences of the 1910s generation of women activists, the impact of amalgamation for the women’s THC profile, the community they formed, and some of the issues they debated in the THC. The 1920s and 1930s saw a steady decline in women’s representation and fading influence in the THC, as a result of a lack of sustained support for separate organizing by the THC and contradictory attitudes among its affiliates.
Beasley, M.1996. The Missos: A history of the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
2.
Bowen, G.A.2009. Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal9:27-40.
3.
Brigden, C.2005. Creating labour’s space: The case of the Melbourne trades hall. Labour History89:125-140.
4.
Brigden, C.2007a. A women’s place? Women in the Victorian Trades Hall Council from the 1880s to the 1990s. Australian Feminist Studies22:369-84.
5.
Brigden, C.2007b. Missing women: Recovering and replacing female activists in Australian labour history. Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal32:156-66.
6.
Briskin, L.1993. Union women and separate organizing. In Women challenging unions: Feminism, democracy, and militancy, ed. L. Briskin and P. McDermott.Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
7.
Briskin, L.1999. Autonomy, diversity, and integration: Union women’s separate organizing in North America and Western Europe in the context of restructuring and globalization. Women’s Studies International Forum22 (5): 543-54.
8.
Broadbent, K., and M. Ford.2008a. Women and labour organizing in Asia: Diversity, autonomy, and activism. London: Routledge.
9.
Broadbent, K., and M. Ford.2008b. Women and labour organization in Asia: Diversity, autonomy and activism. In Women and labour organizing in Asia: Diversity, autonomy, and activism, ed. K. Broadbent and M. Ford.London: Routledge.
10.
Chaison, G.2010. Union mergers: The new interest and some old questions . Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal22:149-56.
11.
Cobble, D.S.1990. Rethinking troubled relations between women and unions: Craft unionism and female activism. Feminist Studies16:519-48.
12.
Cobble, D.S.2007. Introduction. In The sex of class: Women transforming American labor, ed. D. S. Cobble.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
13.
Colgan, F., and S. Ledwith.1996. Sisters organising-Women and their trade unions. In Women in organisations: Challenging gender politics , ed. S. Ledwith and F. Colgan.London: Macmillan.
14.
Cooper, R.2002. ‘To organise wherever the necessity exists’: The activities of the organizing committee of the labor council of NSW, 1900-1910 . Labour History83:43-64.
15.
The Confectioners’ Union Journal. 1948. December 20.
16.
Cullum, L.2009. In whose interest? Women organizing on the waterfront-St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1948. Journal of Historical Sociology22:108-44.
17.
Ellem, B.1989. In Women’s Hands: A History of Clothing Trades Unionism in Australia. Kensington, Australia: UNSW Press.
18.
Eurofound.2009. Trade Union Membership 2003-2008. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/eiro/tn0904019s/tn0904019s (accessed August 9, 2010).
19.
Fahey C., and J. Lack.2000. ‘We have to train men from labourers’: The agricultural implement trade 1918-1945. Journal of Industrial Relations42:551-72.
20.
Frances, R.1993. The politics of work: Gender and labour in Victoria, 1880-1939 . Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Hagan, J.1966. A history of the Australian printing unions 1850-1950 . Canberra, Australia: ANU Press .
22.
Healy, G., and G. Kirton.2000. Women, power, and trade union government . British Journal of Industrial Relations38:343-360.
23.
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC/CSI/IGB).2009. Decent work, decent life for women: Trade unions taking the lead for economic and social justice and equality. Discussion Guide, 1st World Women’s Conference, 19-21 October, Brussels.
24.
Kirkby, D.1985. Alice Henry: Expatriate feminist. In Double Time: Women in Victoria-150 years, ed. M. Lake and F. Kelly.Melbourne: Penguin.
25.
Kirton, G.2006. The making of women trade unionists. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
26.
Labor Call. 1910a. September 8.
27.
Labor Call. 1910b. November 3.
28.
Labor Call. 1910c.November 17.
29.
Labor Call. 1910d. December 8.
30.
Labor Call. 1910e. December 15.
31.
Labor Call. 1911. January 12.
32.
Labor Call. 1912. April 4.
33.
Labor Call. 1913.
34.
Labor Call. 1921.
35.
Labor Call. 1922.
36.
Labor Call. 1925. July 9.
37.
Lake, M.1999. Getting equal: The history of Australian feminism. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
38.
Ledwith, S., and F. Colgan.2002. Tackling gender, diversity, and trade union democracy: A worldwide project? In Gender, diversity and trade unions: International perspectives, ed. F. Colgan and S. Ledwith.London: Routledge.
39.
Macintyre, S.1998. The reds-The Communist party of Australia from origins to illegality. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
40.
McBride, A., and J. Waddington.2008. Union mergers and gender democracy. In Challenges in European employment relations: Employment regulation, trade union organization, equality, flexicurity, training, and new approaches to pay, ed. R. Blanpain and L. Dickens.The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.
41.
Milkman, R.2007. Two worlds of unionism: Women and the new labor movement . In The sex of class: Women transforming American labor, ed. D. S. Cobble.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
42.
Nolan, M.1991. Sex or class? The politics of the earliest equal pay campaign in Victoria. Labour History61:101-22.
43.
Parker, J.2002. Women’s groups inBritish unions. British Journal of Industrial Relations40:23-48.
44.
Parker, J.2003. Women’s groups and equality in British trade unions. Ceredigion, UKEdwin Mellen.
45.
Parker, J.2006. Trade union women’s groups and their effects on union goals and strategies. Human Resource Management Journal16:411-31.
46.
Parker, J., and J. Douglas.2010. Can women’s structures help New Zealand and UK trade unions’ revival?Journal of Industrial Relations52:439-58.
47.
Sayce, S., A. Greene, and P. Ackers.2006. Small is beautiful? The development of women’s activism in a small union. Industrial Relations Journal37:400-14.
48.
THC Council minutes.1910-1940, 1957. Victorian Trades Hall Council collection, University of Melbourne Archives.
49.
THC roll books and credentials lists. 1910-1940. Victorian Trades Hall Council collection, University of Melbourne Archives .
50.
Webb, R.2005. ‘You could go to the trades hall and meet organisers’: Labour precincts and labour women in interwar Sydney. In The past is before us: Proceedings of the 9th National Labour History Conference , ed. G. Patmore, J. Shields, and N. Balnave.Sydney: University of Sydney
51.
The Woman’s Clarion. 1925a. June.
52.
The Woman’s Clarion. 1925b. July.
53.
The Woman’s Clarion. 1925c. August.
54.
Women Bookbinders and Stationery Employees Union minutes. 1911 . January 26.
55.
Yates, C.2006. Challenging misconceptions about organizing women into unions. Gender, Work, and Organization13:565-84.
