Getting Equal Labour Market Regulation and Women's Work

This text argues that real equality between the sexes at work requires building a fairer form of trade unionism to resist those strategies and policies which worsen the situaton of the low-paid worker (women and men), and weaken the ability of trade unions to protect the most vulnerable - in short, those strategies which uncritically permit labour market deregulation.;By comparing the position of women in the Australian labour market with that of their sisters in Sweden and the United States, it sounds a note of warning against those "feminist" demands which can be raised to sharpen competition between individuals in the name of equality between the sexes.;The book presents evidence that Australian women have much to learn from Sweden, where high levels of trade union membership and comprehensive policies of wage fixing go hand-in-hand with improving the situation of the low paid, and the provision of adequate child care and parental leave - all outcomes which have produced significant and enduring reductions in the inequality between the sexes which remains a determining feature of the Australian workforce.