Unions are good for women. Not great, but good. On average, unionization raises women’s wages by 12.9% compared to non-union female workers (Schmitt & Woo, 2013). Women who are union members earn 4.7% higher hourly wages on average than non unionized women (Economic Policy Institute, (2022). Unionized women have better access to health insurance (74% vs. 50.1%) and retirement plans (75.3% vs. 42.7%) compared to non-unionized women (Schmitt & Woo, 2013). Unions with lots of female members tend to get better work-family benefits, including parental leave (Cormier-O’Leary, 2023).
All that said, unions also like to pretend women don’t exist and often do not do a great job of representing our interests (Cigna, 2023). A fun response to any weakness in a union is to join it, get yourself elected to a powerful union position and proceed to kick ass while enjoying all those nice benefits.
Cormier-O’Leary, M. (2023). Unions as gendered institutions: The effects of union membership and occupational gender composition on parental leave access [Master’s thesis, University of New Hampshire]. University of New Hampshire Scholars’ Repository.)
Economic Policy Institute. (2022). Unions and well-being: How unions help build a better, more equitable economy. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Cigna L.M. (2023). Bread or roses? Trade unions, female employment and the expansion of work-family policies. J Eur Public Policy. 31(5):1320-1345. doi: 10.1080/13501763.2023.2184414. PMID: 38533442; PMCID: PMC10964190.
Schmitt, J., & Woo, N. (2013). Women Workers and Unions. Center for Economic and Policy Research. https://cepr.net/documents/union-women-2013-12.pdf.
Unlearning Patriarchy 