Labor movement fights leadership gender gap
The president of the nation’s largest union is a woman. The president of the nation’s second largest union is a woman. The president of the union that is arguably tied for third in numbers is a woman. And the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, the federation’s #2 job, is a woman.
But beyond Presidents Lily Eskelsen-Garcia of the National Education Association, Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees and Randi Weingarten of the Teachers (AFT) and AFL-CIO’s Liz Shuler, there’s a big gender gap among labor movement leaders.
And that’s a problem. An important problem.
The lack of female leaders defies the sheer numbers of women at work. Federal data show that of the 157.288 million employed people aged 16 or over (as of July), 73.705 million (46.8%) are women. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also calculates 6.662 million (45.2%) of the nation’s 14.744 million union members last year were women.
It stands to reason, given those figures, that more women should be in the top ranks of organized labor. They aren’t. Including the three union presidents and Shuler, the number of female presidents of the nation’s 60 or so unions – including AFL-CIO unions, independents such as the NEA and the three unions in Change To Win – can be counted on the fingers of two hands. And the recent death of Margaret Blackshere of Chicago, the first woman ever to run a state labor federation, in Illinois, is a reminder of how few women head state CONTINUE READING: Labor movement fights leadership gender gap – People's World
