Women's Militancy in the Portuguese Trade Union Movement: The Persistence of Gender Inequalities 50 Years After the Carnation Revolution

Abstract

Having been born androcentric, the trade union movement has never been as feminised as it is today. However, trade union activism among women is still less intense than among men. Although relatively significant progress has been made in the five decades since the revolution of 25th of April 1974, gender inequalities persist, entailing a double process of segregation, horizontal and vertical, with the latter resulting in a widespread under-representation of women in the boards and in the union leadership, which makes trade unionism less inclusive and less representative and restricts the democratic nature of the organisations, while contributing to the perpetuation of male domination.