This research planning project will develop a plan to study the conditions under which women have been able to obtain positions of leadership in labor unions. The planning project will allow the investigator to explore the feasibility of using a previously untapped source of data for this purpose, namely the LM-2 reports filed with Department of Labor by American Unions each year since 1960. She will begin the process of coding the data and converting them into machine readable form and decide which unions to choose for her sample. This project will result in a research proposal that will examine the historical conditions which account for why unions develop one or another strategy regarding the representation of women in the union leadership.
