Sex of Class

Dorothy Sue Cobble (Editor)

Description

Women now comprise the majority of the working class. Yet this fundamental transformation has gone largely unnoticed. This book is about how the sex of workers matters in understanding the jobs they do, the problems they face at work, and the new labor movements they are creating in the United States and globally. In The Sex of Class, twenty prominent scholars, labor leaders, and policy analysts look at the implication of this "sexual revolution" for labor policy and practice. In clear, crisp prose, The Sex of Class introduces readers to some of the most vibrant and forward-thinking social movements of our era: the clerical worker protests of the 1970s; the emergence of gay rights on the auto shop floor; the upsurge of union organizing in service jobs; worker centers and community unions of immigrant women; successful campaigns for paid family leave and work redesign; and innovative labor NGOs, cross-border alliances, and global labor federations. The Sex of Class reveals the animating ideas and the innovative strategies put into practice by the female leaders of the twenty-first-century social justice movement. The contributors to this book offer new ideas for how government can help reduce class and sex inequalities; they assess the status of women and sexual minorities within the traditional labor movement; and they provide inspiring case studies of how women workers and their allies are inventing new forms of worker representation and power.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Movimiento sindical
• Industrial relations
• Social class
• Labour economics
• Trade union
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 02 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801462481
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

THE SEX OF CLASS

THE SEX OF CLASS

WOMEN TRANSFORMING AMERICAN LABOR

Edited by Dorothy Sue Cobble

ILR Press AN IMPRINT OF Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2007 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2007 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2007

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Sex of class : women transforming American labor / edited by Dorothy Sue Cobble. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-4322-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8014-8943-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Women in the labor movement—United States. 2. Women labor union members—United States. 3. Women—Employment—United States. I. Cobble, Dorothy Sue. II. Title.

HD6079.2.U5S49 2007 331.40973—dc22

2006036018

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publish- ing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing Paperback printing

1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations

Introduction Dorothy Sue Cobble

CONTENTS

Part I. Women’s Inequalities and Public Policy 1. Increasing Class Disparities among Women and the Politics of Gender Equity Leslie McCall

2. More than Raising the Floor: The Persistence of Gender Inequalities in the Low-Wage Labor Market Vicky Lovell, Heidi Hartmann, and Misha Werschkul

Part II. Unions and Sexual Politics 3. Two Worlds of Unionism: Women and the New Labor Movement Ruth Milkman

4. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Challenge to American Labor Gerald Hunt and Monica Bielski Boris

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1

13

15

35

59

63

81

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Contents

5. Sex Discrimination as Collective Harm Marion Crain

Part III. Labor’s Work and Family Agenda 6. Changing Work, Changing People: A Conversation with Union Organizers at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center Lydia Savage

7. Unions Fight for Work and Family Policies—Not for Women Only Netsy Firestein and Nicola Dones

Part IV. Organizing Women’s Work 8. Working Women’s Insurgent Consciousness Karen Nussbaum

9. “We Were the Invisible Workforce”: Unionizing Home Care Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein

10. Expanding Labor’s Vision: The Challenges of Workfare and Welfare Organizing Vanessa Tait

11. Worker Centers and Immigrant Women Janice Fine

Part V. Local–Global Connections 12. Female Immigrant Workers and the Law: Limits and Opportunities Maria L. Ontiveros

13. Women Crossing Borders to Organize Katie Quan

14. Representing Informal Economy Workers: Emerging Global Strategies and Their Lessons for North American Unions Leah F. Vosko

References About the Contributors Index

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119

140

155

159

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211

231

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293 313 317

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This volume has been simmering since 2001, when the Rutgers University Institute for Research on Women (IRW), which I directed at the time, chose Reconfiguring Class and Gender: Identities, Rights, and Social Movements as its theme. A number of wonderful women and men from the IRW helped me keep the fires stoked and the project moving along. I thank Marlene Impor- tico, IRW’s office manager, and Beth Hutchison, IRW’s associate director, who worked with me in the first stages of this project. They helped me mount a number of IRW programs in which contributors from this volume pre- sented their works-in-progress: the 2002 spring colloquium on Unions and Worktime; the 2002–2003 Thinking about Women/Thinking about Class Dis- tinguished Lecture Series; the June 2003 roundtable, Immigrant Women Or- ganizing; and the 2004 spring conference on Labor, Class, and Sexuality. They also helped secure crucial funding for these programs from the Offices of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, New Brunswick; the Rockefeller Foundation; and the Sexuality Fellowship Research Program of the Social Science Research Council. In the later stages of the project, the encouragement and intellectual sup- port of Nancy Hewitt, whose tenure as IRW director began in 2004, proved in- valuable, as did the superb research assistance of two graduate students in women’s and gender studies, Anique Halliday and Andrew Mazzaschi. The en- thusiasm and good sense of Fran Benson at Cornell University Press helped

viii

Acknowledgments

smooth the way forward. I also thank the many other Cornell University Press staff who steered the production process along with such alacrity. In particu- lar, Candace Akins and Julie F. Nemer did a superb job with the copy editing. Last, the nineteen contributors to this volume have my heartfelt thanks for their eye-opening, meticulous research; their patience through the long book production process; and their thoughtful comments on the overall framing of the project. I am so pleased we took this journey together and hope that our work in this volume can contribute in some small measure to making the world a more humane and just place.

Dorothy Sue Cobble

ANA ACLU ACORN ACTWU AFDC AFL-CIO

AFSCME

AFT AIWA ATU BSOIW

CAAAV CAFÉ Cal-OSHA CAW CCPOA CCTWC CEAL CFRA

ABBREVIATIONS

American Nurses Association American Civil Liberties Union Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union Aid to Families with Dependent Children American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees American Federation of Teachers Asian Immigrant Women’s Advocates Amalgamated Transit Union International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment California Occupational Safety and Health Administration Committee for Asian Women California Correctional Peace Officers Association Child Care That Works Campaign Labor Studies and Support Center [El Salvador] California Family Rights Act