CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Symposium on 28-29 March 2008
Université Lyon 2
a new beginning in the early 21st century?.
Outline:
This symposium offers to give an account on research works and issues concerning women's mobilization and commitment in the world of work from 1945 until today in a cross-discipline and comparative perspective: it will address how women commit themselves in collective labour action seen from their commitment in unions, associations and political parties and their involvement in mass strike and protest movements. The symposium will obviously consider feminist movements but only insofar as their history and influence partly shed light on the strengthening of women-specific claims within unions and, more indirectly, labour committees. The symposium aims to go back over the place that women have taken in strikes and industrial action, explore how they organise, communicate and resist, identify and analyse their specific contributions in different types of action and activism in general. All the sectors of the labour market are concerned (industry, civil service, education, services, health, etc). The period considered (from 1945 till today) was marked by major economic, social, and political transformations (employment, changing family structures, political crises and changeovers). Different time sequences will be discussed and then possibly delineated to reflect that period. Crossing different yet close, complementary disciplines (history, sociology or political science) will be particularly fruitful as it will contribute to address issues related to gender inequalities, how power is exercised and the place of men in unionist and activist culture.
Although research and critical reviews on the question of labour division along gender, on the evolution of employment and female work or on inequalities between men and women developed dramatically in labour sociology, there are few works on the place of women in unionism and public action. While pay or job demands with women in the forefront were the subject of substantial monographs in the post May 1968 period, they are now hardly studied at all in the image of the overall strike phenomenon.
Interrogating the role of women in mass protests from the labour environment implies going back over their place in unions and analysing how difficult it is for these organisations to take into account women's demands and challenge the relations of domination between men and women in their own organisations. In this perspective, the approach through unionism might be particularly relevant both in terms of power relations in unions and the reality of internal policies for the promotion of gender equality. To what extent do unions manage or not to escape male domination and the reproduction of gender inequalities in their ranks?
Unionism does not exhaust the whole subject as women's protests take the form of sometimes original and autonomous organisation modes (e.g. committees), which in turn helps interrogate the transformations of commitment and activism. How original are these organisation modes of which the struggle of female nurses in France in 1988-1989 is one of the most obvious examples? Do these forms of protest testify the emergence of specific stakes? The presence, if not the leadership of women in political, philosophical, religious associations whose role was crucial in social issues related to the labour environment will also be addressed.
The focus will be placed on women's political commitment and labour activism in support of particular struggles and/or the quest for their own activist space. The study of biographies or activist pathways with their shifts, sudden changes, continuities but also their successive or multiple commitments as well as the prosopographic approach could help understand how cross-commitment fields develop.
The symposium could address the following question: while it is now a fact that the twentieth century witnessed the increased female participation in western societies, does the same movement apply to protest and strike movements in the second part of the twentieth century? In what forms? What were its contributions and limits? On the basis of these elements, what conclusions can be drawn for the twenty-first century? Is it a new beginning?
International contributions are strongly encouraged. Crossing the French situation with other experiences is indeed one of the keys to understanding women's activism with its possible national peculiarities. The perspective of foreign researchers on any of the issues raised will bring new elements of problematisation. English and French are the two languages used to submit contributions. To make exchanges easier during the symposium, oral presentations in English will be translated simultaneously in French.
Beside plenary conferences, workshops will contribute to go deeper into different topics and suggest particular studies in a number of fields. The contributions of unionists are most welcome as long as they meet the objectives of the symposium.
The publication of the annals is planned. The schedule and modalities are still to be determined.
• Women's strikes, women on strike: a sociological and historical panorama.
• Gender in industrial disputes: a heuristic perspective?
• Women's employment and working conditions: how much leeway for commitment?
• Private/activist/professional lives: how do social times link up?
• Women's work and women's commitment: evolution of unionist rhetoric.
• Female jobs and male activism: emergence of female protest spaces in male strongholds?
• Modes of organisation and action: employees' committees.
• Access to unionist responsibilities: Are they shared along gender?
• Renewed activist practices in organisations.
• Commitment in union and feminist movements: crossed paths ?
• The educational sector: a largely female activist space?
• Women, female employees and migrants: invisible struggles?
• Biographies, activist pathways
N.B.: The summaries of your contribution proposals (maximum 5000-sign long including spaces) must be emailed to organisers by June 30 2007 at the latest with the completed form. They will mention the title, the angle chosen, the sources or fields used.