Women’s Union Leadership: Research Update

In 2013, our union embarked upon a 3-year study entitled The ‘problems’ and prospects of women’s union leadership. This is a study into the impact of gender on the way union women’s leadership is perceived, enacted, constructed and evaluated within our union and its implications for the role of, and position of women in the broader union movement.

The study is being researched by Trudy Bates, a student at the University of Bradford and an employee of our union, in partial fulfilment of a PhD degree, under the supervision of Professor Nancy Harding (University of Bradford) and Professor Carol Atkinson (Manchester Metropolitan University).

In line with the overall study plan, every 3 months, a brief research update is provided.

This 4th update provides information for all members on the data collection process to date, and details the researcher’s plans for the next 3 months. 

Data Collection

Data collection is drawing to a close and data analysis has commenced. Within this new phase the following collected data sets will be analysed:

• Over 40 hours of audio from two-staged life history interviews with 7 research participants; and
• The researchers notes and reflections of over 40 events, including Executive Committee, Council, rallies, Elected Delegate Committees, staff meetings, organisational management meetings, key campaigns meetings, parliament and marches.

The next 3 months

Data analysis will continue over the coming 3 months, with the researcher moving to the writing phase of the PhD from late December 2015. The research project is on target to be completed in late 2016 at which point a report will be made available to all members.