How women organizers used Berger-Marks grants
Groups & research funded by Berger-Marks
Women organizing women:
special report
Projects we've funded
Ground-breaking reports
Featured report: Stepping Up, Stepping Back: Women Activists ‘Talk Union’ Across Generations
Free Discussion Guide: Strategies for Promoting Women's Leadership in Unions
Other reports
Young Workers: A Lost Decade: Comprehensive AFL-CIO / Working America 2009 report:
Our videos
NEW! See short videos on our YouTube channel.
Useful web sites for organizers
& about organizing women
Federation that major unions like The Newspaper Guild-CWA belong to, and which supports their organizing.
Check out:
AFL-CIO information on Working Women. It's full of useful facts about women workers and includes their latest survey of Working Women.
AFL-CIO Organizing Institute provides training
You can also get books, videos and other goodies from their "Union Shop." Says Newspaper Guild organizer Joanna Millhouse: "I always try to include materials for people to read – how & why people join unions. I get a lot of information from the AFL web site."
AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE)
The DPE commissioned "Union Organizing Among Professional Women Workers," a revealing study by Cornell's Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner, which Berger-Marks funded.
News & features for advancing democracy in the American workplace.
Federation that many other unions belong to. See their feature: Why organize?
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Join the only national organization for union women. Its members, CLUW explains, "are on the frontline, empowering working women to become leaders in their unions and encouraging them to make a difference on the job and, most importantly, in their own lives."
Features wide variety of useful classes, as well as several Bachelor's degree programs and graduate study opportunities, headquartered at a campus formerly known as the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. Says Kathleen Ancil of the Utility Workers Union: "It's an excellent resource for organizing. It gives you a lot of insight of what to expect from organizing."
The union that Berger-Marks benefactor Edna Berger belonged to. She was the Guild's first woman organizer.
Great benefits for union members & organizing drives. Find out which benefits are available in your union; see also if they're available for workers involved in your union's organizing campaigns
A site that welcomes all workers and retirees to join the labor movement's drive for justice around issues like jobs, health care, wages, education, etc.
Other useful sites & resources
From American Rights at Work comes a site that counters anti-union lies and distortions. It features profiles of anti-union organizations with details on their lobbying, litigation and media outreach, as well as their connections to each other.
Examples of creative organizing
Ideas from the Labor Heritage Foundations
Non-profit research organization that addresses the changing nature of work and family life. Useful research and conferences.
Health resources for women unionists
The Coalition of Labor Union Women updated its site with dozens of links to groups and sites that can help with women's health issues --including abuse/violence support.
Institute for Women's Policy Research
Research on the needs of women and public policy to strengthen families, communities and our society.
Labor Project for Working Families
A national, nonprofit advocacy and policy organization to provide technical assistance, resources, and education to unions and union members on family issues in the workplace.
Recommended by Carmella L Cruse, organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 304
A 30-minute video profiling the new generation of Asian Pacific American women labor activists, as they organize immigrant workers in Los Angeles, and featuring interviews with women labor organizers.
Based in England, his site covers labor organizing, contract campaigns and political struggles world-wide, and has pioneered in web communications for cross-border solidarity and union rights.
National Organization for Women
This longstanding organization for women's rights has a web site with news on issues important to women
National Partnership for Women & Families
Nonprofit, nonpartisan group that uses public education and advocacy to promote fairness in the workplace. Spearheaded campaign for paid sick days.
National Women's Health Resource Center
A non-profit health information source for women.
Current news on legal developments affecting women
9to5 National Association of Working Women
A national, grassroots membership group that's supported women striving for economic justice since1973. It has activists in more than 200 cities and members in every state.
Organize This! Tips from Diane L. Campion
Former union organizer Campion offers practical ideas for organizing your work and work environment. She also conducts workshops.
Information about health benefits, sponsored by Aetna
Sloan Work & Family Research Network
Papers on issues important to union women, from child care and sick days to domestic violence, shift work, etc.
The Center supports organizing women & other workers around the world -- lots of information on what they're up against & what we can do.
This site posts open staffing and trades positions in organized labor that are now accepting applications.
Sponsored by the WAGE Project,, whose goal is to end discrimination against women in the workplace, site aims to help working women take the steps needed to get paid what they're worth. Try their wage calculator to see how your job compares.
A union-backed movement with more than 180,000 supporters that organizes online to pressure Walmart to respect the rights of workers and communities.
Workers Independent News Service
The only radio news service where you can find audio and web stories about what's happening with workers across the nation.
Works with workers, employers, and others to identify and prevent discrimination based on family responsibilities. Sponsored by UC Hastings College of Law.
Do you know of a web site or other resource that's helpful to women organizers?
Tell us about organizing resources
We're planning to keep this list short and sweet, but if you're an organizer who knows of a great site that other women organizers could use, please click here to let us know! Thanks.
Also, see Tips & Talk, with helpful hints from organizers
Did you know?
Today
most mothers—even those with the youngest children—participate
in the labor force.
In
2008, full-time women workers were paid 80 cents for every dollar men earned. That's progress from the 62 cents women got back in 1979, but a drop from the 81 cents they were paid in 2005 and '06.
While women have made real wage gains over the past 30 years -- especially white women,
the typical man has not - he's making no more than he was 30 years ago, after adjusting for inflation.
Six out of every 10 women over 15 years old were in the labor force in 2008, compared with 7 out of 10 men.
Out of every 100 workers, 46 were women.
But that women's share of jobs has nearly stood still since 1998.
Families depended on a wife's earnings for
over a third -- or 36% -- of their incomes In 2006, . That's been steadily rising from 26.6% in 1970.
Half of the 7.6 million Americans working more than one job are women. And contrary to myth, most of the women holding down more than one job are married.
Married workers usually make more than single workers do, and whether they have children makes little difference in their pay-checks. But for single workers, having children makes a big difference:
Single women with children make 11.5% less than those who are childless. It's the opposite for men, however:
Unmarried men who have children make 11 percent more than those who don't.
By 2006, one out of three wives were making more money than their husbands -- women were the bigger bread-winners in a total of 12.6 million married couples.
Although women are more likely than men to have professional jobs, they don't get many of the high-paying ones. In 2008, only 9 percent of women professionals were working in higher-paying computer and engineering fields, compared with 45 percent of male professionals.
The jobs that two out of three women professionals get are in education and health care, where pay is lower. Only 29 percent of
male professionals worked in those fields in 2008,
Less than one in four of the nation's architects, computer programmers and software or hardware engineers, supervisors, protective service workers, or detectives are women. Even fewer of the chefs, industrial and other engineers, law enforcement officers, painters, engineers, truck and tractor operators, or crane and tower operators are women. See full list. On the other hand, women also hold less than one in four dishwashing jobs.
One in four women workers were still working part-time jobs in 2008, compared to just one in ten male workers. Women part-time workers make more than male part-timers, however -- mainly because the men who work part-time tend to be very young.
Wages are more equal between men and women for black and Hispanic workers and the nation's youngest workers -- women get just 10 percent less. But both suffer low wages. A full-time woman worker who's younger than 25 makes 60 cents for every dollar an older woman aged 45 or over is paid.
What's the biggest health care occupation? It's registered nurses. There are 2.8 million RNs, more than three times the number of doctors and surgeons. In 2008, 92% of RN's were women.
Just under half the nation's women workers were enrolled in a pension or other retirement plan as of March, 2005.
Today's women are more highly educated. By 2008, 93 percent of women aged 25 to 64 had at least a high school diploma, and two out of three had gone to college. In the same age group, more men were high school drop-outs and
fewer (59%) had some college. But men were more likely to get a degree in higher education.
Only 14 percent of full-time women workers clocked more than 40 hours a week in 2008. yet more than one out of four men working full-time (26%) put in workweeks of 41 hours or more.
Sources: The U.S. DOL Women's Bureau, 2008 BLS Datebook,Highlights of Women’s
Earnings in 2008, DOL Fact sheets on retirement and non-traditional jobs, DOL Employment status of women & men, 2008
Do you know of a useful web site or other resource for organizers? Tell us about it!