by Jennifer Clark The budget battles in Wisconsin, Indiana, and
across the Midwestern United States have inspired a barrage of
commentary about what the successful passage of the proposed
state laws to strip public sector unions of their collective
bargaining power would mean for public sector workers (not
good), black workers (really not good), and the future of the
labor movement (really, really not good). Another group with a
significant stake in the outcome of these debates over public
sector union bargaining power is women. First, let’s review a
few facts about women and labor unions in general. Although
unionized women earn more than non-unionized women on average
and have access to more benefits, such as paid leave and health
insurance, public sector employees are actually paid less than
their private sector counterparts, once their qualifications are
taken into account. An IWPR report on job retention and low-
income mothers found that union membership contributed to
keeping moms on the job. In 2010, a