This book has been titled Labour Pains to reflect the intensity of the struggle for gender equality in the trade union movement and society. Women in labour carry the double burden of paid work and unpaid work in the home. Black working class women are oppressed as black people, as women and as workers. They also face a ‘struggle within the struggle’ as they are forced to confront sexism in their won unions as well as in the workplace and at home. The book explores the experiences of women leaders in the trade unions, and the strategies they use to deal with the challenges and the burdens they face. It also reflects on the strategies adopted by COSATU and some of its affiliates to advance gender equality and promote organizational change. While the book acknowledges that progress has been made on the development of policy for gendered change, it argues that little has been achieved in practice in terms of translating commitments into meaningful reality for working class women. The book argues that challenging unequal power between men and women in the unions and society does not happen simply through resolutions, policies and setting up structures – it happens through action and activism.

Rita Goyit

The NLC recognises the peculiar nature of women’s role as affecting their ability or inability to participate effectively in the public sphere. Empowerment of women should therefore begin from a re-examination of the place of women within Nigerian society. The NLC is, therefore, committed to building a world where gender justice reigns, which recognises that change for women within the labour movement demands an internal restructuring, complemented by external working partnerships.

By Liesl Orr

South African trade unions need to ensure that gender policies become practice. They have been called upon to radically change the conservative way they approach gender issues in order to redress existing unequal gender relations within their organisations.