Thesis

Gender in a trade union organisation : exploring logic, lock-in and their implications

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2025
Thesis identifier
  • T17545
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202159074
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Abstract
  • Research has long shown that organisations are not neutral spaces but reproduce gender inequalities in how people work, lead, and are represented. Yet gaps remain in understanding how these inequalities take root in particular histories and contexts, especially those of organisations in the Global South. This study takes up that challenge by examining how gendering practices are embedded in a South African trade union. To do so, it is guided by gendered organisations theory, inequality regimes and feminist perspectives. Feminist perspectives, specifically standpoint theory, situated knowledge, and Black feminist perspectives, are brought together in a framing that I refer to as a post-Apartheid feminist reflective lens. Using a qualitative case study approach, I combined interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations to trace how gendering praxes emerge and endure in everyday trade union life. This multi-method strategy enabled depth, specificity, and contextual analysis of how past political, economic, and social conditions continue to shape gendered dynamics within the trade union. The findings show that leadership and decision-making remain shaped by an organisational logic centred on the frame of ‘patriarchal sedimentation.’ I define patriarchal sedimentation as the organisational logic that is grounded in a gradually solidified, male-centred practice, defining leadership, representation, and decision-making within the organisation. It demonstrates how historical legacies, organisational routines, and external socio-political pressures interact symbiotically to reinforce gendered praxes and hierarchies. Therefore, it highlights not only how gendered praxes are rooted but also why they remain resistant to formal reforms or policy interventions. The study contributes in three ways. Theoretically, the study enhances understanding of gendering processes by illustrating their historical and contextual roots, moving beyond universalist explanations and emphasising the significance of specific socio-political contexts, such as those in South Africa. Methodologically, by adopting a post-Apartheid feminist reflective lens, this lens highlights how colonial and Apartheid legacies influence gendered praxes, especially for Black women, offering a decolonial expansion of feminist theory that situates analysis within local histories and contexts. Empirically, it demonstrates how gender inequalities persist in a South African trade union, despite progressive labour laws, offering practical, locally grounded insights into how organisational contexts perpetuate gender disparities and thereby prompting situational guidance for context-aware, equitable interventions. Together, these contributions advance both scholarship and practice by foregrounding the complex roots of gender inequality in trade unions. These highlight that gendering is not only about organisational structures, but also about economic survival within unequal systems.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Garvey, Brian, Dr.
  • Briken, Kendra, 1972-
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