여성 노동자의 노조활동 침체 원인: 노동조합 여성간부의 경험

This study aims to identify the causes of female workers’ low participation in labor union activities, especially in the context of labor unions predominantly composed of male workers by examining female labor union officials’ union activities. The analysis results revealed that two inhibiting factors comprised of and operating in layered and compound manners have weakened female workers’ activities. First, the Confucian and patriarchal identity of labor unions has unequally objectified and marginalized female workers, thus constricting their activities and making them passive. When looked at against the standard of ‘gender,’ the identity of labor unions inherently assumes undemocratic and anti-democratic qualities. It is argued in the study that such an identity leads the organizations culturally and customarily. Second, the centralization and pursuit of monopolization of power predominantly by men, or the centralized power hierarchy around a chairman to be exact, and the instrumental manner of union activities and the performance-centric structure that enable them have suppressed gender politics. Labor unions’ inclination toward performance-centricity has led to the failure to reflect female workers’ life-cycle experiences and continued restriction of their activities. However, we need to note the points of changes female workers have experienced in their continued union activities over the years as recounted in the study interviews.