Trade union membership and women’s right to work: The complex dynamics between gender, labor, and politics in Europe
In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx famously asserts the “estrangement of man from man” under commodity production. Given the intertwined relationship between labor and gender, this declaration may be engendered and re-phrased as the “estrangement of man from woman.” Men and women are alienated from each other, because work—once an essential feature of all human existence—has been construed as an exclusive sphere for men, with women being denied equal access and right to work. It is this narrowed and masculinized understanding of work that has catalyzed gender antagonism in early trade unionism.
Lei, Jianxuan. (2023). "Trade union membership and women’s right to work: The complex dynamics between gender, labor, and politics in Europe."