Making Globalization Work for Women explores the potential for trade unions to defend the socioeconomic rights of women in a global context. Looking at labor policies and interviews with people in unions and nongovernmental organizations, the essays diagnose the problems faced by women workers across the world and assess the progress that unions in various countries have made in responding to those problems. Some concerns addressed include the masculine culture of many unions and the challenges of female leadership within them, laissez-faire governance, and the limited success of organizations working on these issues globally. Making Globalization Work for Women brings together in a synthetic and fruitful conversation the work and ideas of feminists, unions, NGOs, and other human rights workers.

List of Figures and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Glossary of Acronyms and Terms

1. Introduction and Overview: Globalization and Women’s Social Rights
Mary Margaret Fonow, Suzanne Franzway, and Valentine M. Moghadam

PART I. WOMEN, WORK, AND SOCIAL/ECONOMIC RIGHTS ACROSS THE GLOBE

2. Toward Economic Citizenship: The Middle East and North Africa
Valentine M. Moghadam

3. Promoting the Social Rights of Working Women: The Case of Palestinian Women in Israel
Michal Schwartz

4. Tunisia: Women’s Economic Citizenship and Trade Union Participation
Hafidha Chékir and Khédija Arafoui

5. Gendered Economic Rights and Trade Unionism: The Case of Argentina
Graciela di Marco

6. Can a Focus on Survival and Health as Social/Economic Rights Help Some of the World’s Most Imperiled Women in a Globalized World? Cases from Ecuador, Ukraine, and Laos
Rae Lesser Blumberg and Andres Wilfrido Salazar-Paredes

PART II. REPORTS FROM THE FIELD: TRADE UNION AND MULTILATERAL PERSPECTIVES

7. The ILO, Gender Equality, and Trade Unions
Shauna Olney

8. Women’s Rights and Leadership: A Central Trade Union Agenda
Jo Morris

9. Achieving Equality Through Quality: Public Services and the Role of Public-Sector Trade Unions
Nora Wintour

10. The Role of Unions in the Promotion of Gender Equality in France
Pascale Coton

PART III. WHERE NEXT FOR FEMINISM AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT?

11. Trade Unions, Collective Agency, and the Struggle for Women’s Equality: Expanding the Political Empowerment Measure
Linda Briskin

12. Women’s Leadership in the South African Labor Movement
Neva Seidman Makgetla

13. Women-Only Unions and Women Union Leaders in Japan
Kaye Broadbent

14. Demanding Their Rights: LGBT Transnational Labor Activism
Suzanne Franzway and Mary Margaret Fonow

15. Ne’er the Twain Shall Meet? Reflections on the Future of Feminism and Unionism
Jennifer Curtin

About the Contributors
Index