Web Version of Resource Kit

Adobe PDF Version

Availble in English, French, Spanish and Arabic

Introduction [Fr] [Es]
Booklet 1 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Booklet 2 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Booklet 3 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Booklet 4 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Booklet 5 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Booklet 6 [Fr] [Es] [Ar]
Report [Fr] [Ar]

In spite of their increasing participation in the labour force, women account for only about a third of global trade union membership and represent one per cent of the decision-making bodies of unions. To find out why, GENPROM, in collaboration with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities, conducted in 1998-99 a survey and case studies of trade unions and national centres all over the world. The main reasons revealed by the survey are that, on the one hand, women do not understand how unions can benefit them, and, on the other hand, unions are often not sensitive to the needs of women workers or their entrenched rules and structures are not conducive to women's participation and leadership.

To help unions attract and keep women members and become more relevant to women's lives, seven booklets of good practice accompany the final survey report. The Resource Kit focuses on how unions can promote gender equality:

• within their own internal structures and policies;
• at the workplace through the collective bargaining process (including the key issues for gender equality bargaining); and
• through community outreach and working with other civil groups to fight for gender equality and other social causes.

The Resource Kit also provides innovative approaches for organizing and protecting atypical workers, including informal economy workers, workers in export-processing zones and domestic workers; and illustrates how trade unions can "share the table and create space" for youths, older workers, workers with disabilities as well as lesbians and gays.

Each booklet of the Resource Kit is structured to define the tasks and challenges facing trade unions in the promotion of gender equality and the protection of vulnerable workers; and to provide guidelines and practical tools for action. These include checklists and actual examples of action and operational strategies that have succeeded or failed and the identification of factors making for success or failure in particular contexts.