The Gender and Industrial Relations Network was established in 1996 by Dr Lise Lotte Hansen of Roskilde University, Denmark and Professor Linda Dickens of University of Warwick, UK. Lise Lotte built the network and acted as coordinator until 2003. The network was an informal one set up as a response to the invisibility and marginalization of gender and women within mainstream industrial relations research. Members met at IIRA congresses and in 2003 the network was formally established as a Study Group within IIRA. Gill Kirton and Anne-marie Greene took over as joint coordinators in 2003.
Rationale
We believe that a study group specifically concerned with the study of gender and industrial relations is important because industrial relations continues to be a field which is dominated by and focused on the study of men. Gender issues still remain marginal to much of the industrial relations research agenda, as is evidenced by a search of journal publications, or the submissions to mainstream industrial relations conferences. We hope that the network and study group meetings will provide opportunities for researchers interested in gender analyses of industrial relations processes and practices to come together and to more generally raise the profile of gender within the mainstream industrial relations field.
Thinking about making gender more central to industrial relations raises interesting questions on which we invite comment and additions to, including: