Women’s ILO : transnational networks, global labour standards and gender equity, 1919 to present

Product Description

Women’s ILO examines a century-long history of women and their networks involved in and with the ILO, the gendered meaning of labour standards, and the challenges of achieving gender equity through international labour law, transnational campaigns, and local labour policies.

Review

"Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." - Elizabeth Faue, in: CHOICE, 56:4 (2018)

"This collection provides a thorough overview of the shifting position of women - and of concerns about women's work, gender equity, and gender policy - within the International Labor Organization (ILO) from 1919 to the present. [...] This is a comprehensive and rigorous discussion of women as both subjects and objects of the ILO. It will be valuable to anyone working on the history of international organizations, transnational activism, gender and labour activism, and/or the intersections between race, class, and gender in the twentieth century". Nicole Bourbonnais.

Endorsements:
"This fascinating collection of essays assesses the ILO's role in securing social justice for women workers around the world over the past hundred years, and asks how that role might change as the world of work is itself transformed in the next century. Essential reading for scholars and students interested in the history of labour, feminist activism, social rights and international organizations." - Celia Donert, University of Liverpool
"This is an exciting collection that provides a long-overdue state of the art on gender politics and the ILO. It brings to life a feminist and historical perspective--broadening the consideration of women at the ILO to an exploration of gender politics, intersectionally weaving race, class, and coloniality into such politics, exploring the power of the ILO's gender expertise to define new realities, recognizing the institutional conflicts between the ILO and the UN regarding gender politics during the Cold War, valorizing the power of women's and feminist networks, bringing into view the translations of ILO ideas into multiple contexts around the world, and showing how the very meaning of work needs re-evaluation when women's experiences are taken seriously. In addition to doing all this, the collection offers rich empirical materials based on original research. It will no doubt be the work of reference on the topic for years to come." - Elisabeth Prügl, Professor of International Relations, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
"Women's ILO is a groundbreaking anthology that explores how women's transnational political networks have shaped the International Labour Organization and how the ILO has sought to create standards for work conditions for women throughout the 20th century. In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the ILO, founded in 1919, this volume brings together established as well as emerging scholars from across the globe to explore issues related to women, labor, and international regulation. The essays, written by historians and social scientists, have a broad geographical as well as chronological reach. The authors explore issues related to gender, work, and economic justice in the global South and North. They also trace the developments of the ILO, women's networks, and gendered regulations across the interwar years, World War II and the Cold War, and the rise and expansion of neoliberalism and globalization. This is a must-read volume for scholars and students interested in women, labor, and international/transnational history." - Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine

About the Author

Eileen Boris, Ph.D. (Brown University, 1981) holds the Hull Chair of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The author or editor of twelve volumes, she writes on home labours and race, gender, and class in social politics.
Dorothea Hoehtker , Ph.D. (EHESS, Paris, 2003), is a historian and Se