Women’s access to representative institutions

A gender-inclusive democracy ahead

Persistent gender inequality in corporate decision-making and society at large (ETUC and ETUI 2018: 77) is also reflected in women’s limited access to leadership and representative positions in democratic workplace institutions.  Despite unions’ efforts to secure adequate representation, not least in response to their increasingly feminised membership demographics (such as in German, Nordic or UK unions), women are still not sufficiently recognised as leaders, often remaining excluded from the unions’ centres of power and mainstream strategies (Ledwith 2012: 190-191). Demanding more democracy at work should thus include demands for more gender inclusiveness in these forms of democratic representation (Young 1990).

more information in Benchmarking Working Europe 2019 - Chapter 4 Democracy at work