Organising and Representing Women: the historical case of the Female Confectioners Union

2014/01/02 by Cathy Brigden · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Labor Movements and Unions

paper · doi:10.1080/09612025.2013.846112

openalex publication_date 2014/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

How women workers’ interests should be represented and advanced by unions underpins debates about the merits of separate organising. This study of an Australian women's union, the Female Confectioners Union, shows how separate organising created union space and voice for female confectionery workers. Set against this was inter-organisational conflict that developed between the union and the existing male-dominated union, in which separate organising became a contested strategy. For the Female Confectioners Union, this conflict not only reinforced the necessity of separate organising to ensure that the interests of women workers remained a central union concern but also what form the separate organising should take.

Cited by

• Confectionery Workers' Union of Australia [wikipedia]

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