O<scp>rganizing at the</scp> M<scp>argins</scp>: W<scp>omen</scp> S<scp>hape the</scp> L<scp>abor</scp> M<scp>ovement</scp>

It is frequently the case in social change movements that women organize on the margins, performing labor that is often invisible but indispensible to the movement's growth and success. One of the more significant developments in the field of labor studies over the last three decades has been the effort to document this often-invisible labor. Historians such as Ava Baron, Annelise Orleck, Dorothy Sue Cobble, and Alice Kessler-Harris (whose most recent book is reviewed in this issue) have argued for women's workplace activism as creating a distinctly working-class feminism that has significance for both the feminist movement and the labor movement.1 Their work—as well as important work in the fields of anthropology, sociology, women's studies, political science, and literary and cultural studies—has helped demonstrate the necessity of viewing Labor Studies through the lens of gender.2 Such works make the case for the importance of acknowledging both women's experiences and of the role of gender as shaping forces in the workplace and the labor movement, both in the United States and globally. The essays in this issue are a powerful call to make women's labor activism visible and to recognize the ways that their activism can help shape the labor movement as a whole. Most of them address issues that have been raised in other essays about women workers: the gender gap in specific industries and organizations, the wage gap, the struggle to maintain a work–family balance, and the prevalence of sexual discrimination and harassment in the workplace. However, many of these essays provide particular insight into ways women workers organize and effect change in the workplace by drawing on their kinship and community networks.3 Together, these essays suggest that women's activism and leadership not only improve women's working lives but also benefit the labor movement as a whole by contributing to a more democratic and worker-centered social justice movement. Eileen Boris and Premilla Nadasen take up the role of kin and community networks as organizing strategies among domestic workers, a group that is often marginalized because of the nature of their work. Their essay presents a useful and timely overview of domestic workers' organizing efforts going back at least a century. While the myth that domestic workers cannot be organized has been addressed in other studies, Boris and Nadasen discuss ways that they can and do organize effectively. They argue that domestic workers have used nontraditional methods that draw on their communities and neighborhoods as avenues of mobilization and build relationships not just on class but also on gender, race, ethnicity, and family, thus challenging assumptions about labor organizing. They provide a historical overview of domestic organizing efforts (union, legislative, and community-based), recovering moments when domestic workers have built coalitions through strong kin and community networks. Their focus on current organizing efforts places domestic worker rights at the center of movements for both workplace justice and feminist social change. Jessica M. Smith also addresses the importance of kinship networks in her original research based on interviews and participant observations at the coal mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (a traditionally male-dominated industry). Her essay looks at women's struggles to balance family responsibilities with their work in the mines. She argues that their reliance on family members and community networks to manage the double shift they work raises important issues for labor organizing, as well as for state and federal legislation addressing the needs of working women and families. Smith also looks at the importance of these kinship networks within the workplace as she discusses the formation of what she calls “crew families,” which help to counter the sexual harassment conventionally found in male-dominated industries. These alternative methods allowed the women to successfully overcome many of the obstacles that women traditionally face in the workplace and can provide lessons for organizers in other predominantly male industries. Both Boris and Nadasen's and Smith's essays offer insight into ways that women's particular ways of organizing can help shape and influence the labor movement as a whole. Michelle Kaminski and Elaine K. Yakura further this argument in their essay analyzing the gender gap in women's leadership in the labor movement. They demonstrate how women are underrepresented in leadership positions throughout the labor movement and call for more equal representation at the leadership level. Women's equality in leadership is not mere tokenism, they argue; it will give greater prominence to issues that affect women (decreasing the wage gap between male and female workers, higher pay in female-dominated industries, resources to help women find a work-family balance, and sexual harassment in the workplace, to name just a few). While addressing women's issues is an important goal in and of itself, Kaminski and Yakura insist that women bring different leadership styles and strategies that can benefit the labor movement as a whole. As such, they discuss specific methods for developing and promoting women's leadership and maintain that doing so should be a priority for the labor movement. Jessica Wilkerson adds to the discussion of ways that women's leadership can strengthen the labor movement. Her essay describes the crucial role that rank-and-file women from the Tennessee Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (TNCOSH) played in getting the Chemical Hazard Right to Know Law passed. While many of the women involved had been active organizers in their workplaces, they were not represented in the leadership of their local unions and labor councils, most of which were controlled by men. Drawing heavily on oral history (interviews and personal testimony from public hearings), Wilkerson documents the ways that women drew upon female networks and kinship groups to build powerful coalitions within their communities. Through their work with TNCOSH, they gained experience and skills that they brought back to their workplaces and their unions. Their participation in the campaign helped strengthen and shape the local labor movement by creating a more inclusive grassroots movement for worker safety and justice. Pamela Stewart provides a historical perspective on women's involvement in revolutionary struggles in France, Vietnam, and Poland. She argues that women's participation contributed to the survival and success of these political and military campaigns, yet rarely translated to changes in women's status in the new societies that emerged from these revolutions. Although women's participation in warfare and nation building helped to challenge expectations about women's roles, they remained marginalized in the aftermath of regime change. While she does not look specifically at the labor movement, her essay suggests that the outcomes of these revolutions have broader relevancy to other efforts to build a more just and democratic society. As many of the other essays here argue, women's participation in any social movement is important, but it is just as important that women's issues, perspectives, and leadership be an integral part of shaping any organization working for justice and change. The impetus for this issue originated with the one-day Women and Work conference held at the City College Center for Worker Education in March 2007. The interdisciplinary conference focused on the historical, social, political, and cultural factors that impact on the meanings and experiences of women's work, both locally and globally. The conference brought together presenters from within both academia and the labor movement, and from the United States as well as from Bangladesh, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Turkey. Over one hundred academics, workers, students, activists, and union members gathered to hear presentations, participate in workshops, and view films covering topics ranging from public policy affecting women in Bulgaria to women's leadership in India, to women street vendors in Mexico, and to construction workers in Asia. All in all, the conference demonstrated the wide array of topics for further exploration. This issue touches on but one small area, but as the influence of gender on the field of labor studies continues to grow, these essays can hopefully contribute to changing not only the face but also the shape of today's labor movement.

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