Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. List Of Abbreviations ix
5. Introduction 1
6. Part I. Women’s Inequalities and Public Policy
7. 1. Increasing Class Disparities among Women and the Politics of Gender Equity 13
8. 2. More than Raising the Floor: The Persistence of Gender Inequalities in the Low-Wage Labor Market 35
9. Part II. Unions and Sexual Politics
10. 3. Two Worlds of Unionism: Women and the New Labor Movement 59
11. 4. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Challenge to American Labor 81
12. 5. Sex Discrimination as Collective Harm 99
13. Part III. Labor’s Work and Family Agenda
14. 6. Changing Work, Changing People: A Conversation with Union Organizers at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center 117
15. 7. Unions Fight for Work and Family Policies–Not for Women Only 140
16. Part IV. Organizing Women’s Work
17. 8. Working Women’s Insurgent Consciousness 155
18. 9. “We Were the Invisible Workforce”: Unionizing Home Care 177
19. 10. Expanding Labor’s Vision: The Challenges of Workfare and Welfare Organizing 194
20. 11. Worker Centers and Immigrant Women 211
21. Part V. Local–Global Connections
22. 12. Female Immigrant Workers and the Law: Limits and Opportunities 231
23. 13. Women Crossing Borders to Organize 253
24. 14. Representing Informal Economy Workers: Emerging Global Strategies and Their Lessons for North American Unions 272
25. References 293
26. About the Contributors 313
27. Index 317