Progress on Women's Equality within UK and Canadian Trade Unions: Do Women's Structures Make a Difference?

Women's structures have long featured in many UK and Canadian unions, and their forms and functions continue to widen. Extant literature highlights their concern with improving female union members' conditions in the workplace, but a growing body of scholarly work observes that women's structures may act as change agents within the trade union setting. Drawing on recent survey and interview evidence, this paper examines various equality achievements for women within UK and Canadian unions, before seeking to account for the extent of this progress with regard to women's structures' presence and activity. The empirical findings then inform a discussion which focuses on women's structures' contribution to women's equality within unions, and the implications of prevailing measures of internal equality progress for union influence.