Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

40
POLITICS AND TRADE UNIONS
Experiences from Mexico
Gender–related work makes trade unions more attractive
Gender-related work can result in the modernization
and democratization of the internal structures
of trade unions and it can make trade unions
fi t to take up global challenges. This has been the
experience in Latin America and other continents
as demonstrated by the project work undertaken
by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
One of the most important issues in Mexico is the
promotion of gender equality at the work-place.
Why?
With respect to gender stereotypes, most countries
in Latin America are undergoing change. Before
the law, men and women have, for a fairly long
time now, been equal. The reality, however, is
somewhat different, especially with regard to the
labor market. Over the past 50 years, Mexican women
have fought for a quantitatively larger share
of the labor market. The radical changes in the
Mexican economy since the 1980s have led to
fl exibility and instability of jobs, impacting women
in particular. They earn on an average 35 per cent
less than their male colleagues and a much higher
proportion of women work in exploitative industrial
sectors, where there is hardly any trade union
presence.
The increased participation of women in the labor
market has garnered for them only a limited increase
in decision-making within the Mexican
trade unions, which continue to be dominated by
male power structures and ideology. Trade unions
are no exception to this philosophy in Mexico. The
political culture and institutions are steeped in
relationships of male loyalty and often prevent
women from entering politics or occupying top
positions.
Modernization through gender
It is with good reason that the legitimation crisis of
trade unions in Mexico is also rooted in the marginalization
of women in the organizational and
power structures of trade unions. Women always
had and continue to have few opportunities to take
on the leadership role in the male dominated trade
union structures. Often, these structures are authoritarian
and non-transparent. Women meet with
resistance when they attempt to discuss issues such
as discrimination at the work-place or unequal
wages in their organizations. For the FES work in
Mexico, this means that specifi c gender work not
only helps women workers, but it is also a solid
contribution towards the socio-political modernization
of fossilized structures within the trade
unions.
The idea is not merely to achieve apparent gender
equality within the trade unions through a purely
quantitative mechanism of women’s quotas, but
rather, it is much more important to ensure that
women active within the trade unions evolve their
own style of leadership so that they do not conform
to the established leadership structures of
male trade unionists.
FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG