Gender, Equality, Diversity, and a New Industrial Relations Paradigm?

  • Gill Kirton
Chapter

Abstract

Industrial relations (IR), as both a field of scholarship and an area of policy and practice, has the potential to improve working lives.1 Yet despite the fact that gender, equality and diversity touch the lives of all working people globally, these issues tend to be marginal within IR research, policy and practice. This chapter supports the call for IR to integrate these issues into the agenda, but also argues for them to be seen as a core and necessary area. To achieve this, is a ‘new’ IR paradigm needed? What might an IR paradigm that takes full account of gender, equality and diversity both in research and in policy and practice look like? What might count as IR? What specific issues need to be central, rather than marginal to the research, policy and bargaining agenda? Within a more inclusive IR paradigm, what do we understand about contemporary employer and trade union action on gender, equality and diversity?

Keywords

Trade Union Collective Bargaining Industrial Relation Union Membership Diversity Management 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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3 Gender, Equality, Diversity, and a New Industrial Relations Paradigm?

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© Gill Kirton 2011

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  • Gill Kirton

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