leadership initiative:females in trade unions

2005-2007 Project led by ICTU

ETUI ESF SeminarBrussels, March 2014

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

The LIFT Development Partnership (DP)Institute of Public Administration

Irish Congress of Trade Unions

National Centre for Partnership and Performance

LIFT Transnational PartnersCONFIO (Spain) UGT Estremedura

FIC (Denmark) LO Copenhagen

€ 1.4M Fund Funded by the EQUAL Community Initiative : “combating all forms of

exclusion, discrimination and inequalities in the labour market”

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

LIFT dealt with deficit of women in leadership roles in trade unions.

The overarching objective of LIFT was to increase the participation and involvement of women at every level of union organisations with emphasis on the identification, development and support of future women leaders.

Ultimately…

Increased representation of women will ensure union focus on issues which disproportionately affect women such as care, low pay, career progression, work-life balance, the pay gap etc

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

KEY ACTIONSThrough LIFT we sought to:

o Better understand barriers to participation and engagement in unions and why women are not progressing to the top (Research)

o Look at how we can make joining a union more attractive for women and test different methods of recruitment (Research and Market Testing)

o Develop an awareness programme based on findings to enable unions to improve women’s involvement - including advice on changing structures and ways of working (Research, Networking and Trialling)

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Actions continued:

o Provide leadership development training for potential women TU leaders and leadership mentoring skills for current leadership (Personal Skills Development)

o Establish networking opportunities for women involved in unions to foster action learning, generate innovation, develop knowledge and give SUPPORT (Networking and Personal Development)

o Improve awareness and understanding of equality issues, enhance equality training and refocus advocacy and policy activity (Awareness, Training and Policy)

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Objectives of the LIFT research

o Establishing a clear picture of the different factors that influence the participation and engagement of men and women in union organisations.

o Identify and understand progression barriers and issues affecting participation to better understand the motivation for and barriers against women joining, participating in and progressing through unions.

o Involved former and current women leaders, staff activists and general secretaries.

Current reality facing women in accessing and participating fully in the labour market:

Lack of affordable childcare / elder careGender pay gap / pensions gapCareer advancement – vertical and horizontal segregationReconciliation of work / life balanceLack of participation in decision-making structuresLack of recognition of ‘care labour’ – unpaid contributionThe impact upon women of multiple discriminationAccess to further education and training

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Key Experiences for Women in Irish Trade Unions25% of Union Officials

26% of Elected Officers

4% of General Secretaries

98% of Administrative Staff

‘Male, pale and stale’ culture dominates…Hierarchical model prevails

Reliance on ‘long-hours’

‘Male’ constructs of leadership

Lack of ‘HRD’ in succession-planning

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Informal Networks

“You have to lead a very bureaucratic

organisation governed by an old

rule book, so you get tied up in endless

meetings”.TU General Secretary

Recruitment and

Promotions

‘Male’ Gendered Culture

“I didn’t have an MBA or degree or anything at the

time and I just held back despite my

experience.”Senior TU Female

“Men tend to judge an issue in terms of the politics … women in terms of fairness.” TU General Secretary

“Every woman involved in their

trade union needs a wife at

home!”Senior TU Female

Factors contributing to vertical segregation

Accepted ‘constructs’ of

leadership

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

LIFT – Programme of Strategic Change Interventions

Research – Understand experiences of women in trade unions

Analyse current leadership approaches

Examine motivation, validity, relevance of joining

Assess how to engage a wider audience

Leadership Development ProgrammesStrand I – General Secretary level

Strand II – Women Leaders

Strand III – Women’s Network

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

LIFT – Programme of Strategic Change Interventions

Women’s Networks – Provide top-down / bottom-up support

Act as internal change agents supported by leadership

Inform diverse approaches to recruitment and promotion

Engage a wider audience of women

Training ResourcesAssessment of leadership styles informed by coaching

Leadership development supported through mentoring

Training resourced through specially devised toolkits for women, i.e. ‘Handbook for Women Activists’

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Strand IGeneral

Secretaries

Strand IISenior Level

Women

Informing cultural change

Strategising, succession planning

Supportive networks

Leading change,promoting new

growth

Mainstreaming approaches to meet future challenges

Strand IIIWomen Officials and

Activists

This series of ‘conversations’ was prompted by briefings which focussed on the challenges facing trade union leaders related to the sustainability and development of the movement.

The briefings were designed to promote debate and discussion on these challenges.

These conversations furthered the goals of the LIFT project by strengthening and supporting the current leadership by aiding the development of a leadership training programme and by effecting change in the trade union movement.

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions

Objective of Strategic ‘Breakfast Conversations’

LIFT – Impact and OutcomesThe top-down / bottom-up approach led to sustained profiling of the issue

The Strategic Conversations created the realisation of the need to change which resulted in the Commission on the Trade Unions

The leadership development programme has been mainstreamed and now forms the core of our general leadership programme

The BDAL (Business Driven Action Learning) process resulted in the creation of a Women at Work network which has received sustained funding to support the particular training needs of women

Significant increase to a majority of women shop stewards

Majority of VPs in NECs are now women

Frank VaughanIrish Congress of Trade Unions