1 Women and Trade Union Leadership Key Theoretical Concepts from UK-based literature Gill Kirton and Geraldine Healy Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity Queen Mary, University of London Introduction This paper attempts to pull out the key theoretical concepts from the UK-based literature on women and trade unions. Five areas are covered: (i) the conceptual hinterland; (ii) conceptualizing trade union leadership; (iii) conceptualizing gendered barriers to union leadership; (iv) conceptualizing trade union and gender identities; and, (v) conceptualizing leadership enablement strategies. The sixth section offers some initial thoughts on the implications for comparative UK/US research and poses the question of whether the five areas covered here could be taken as an analytical framework for our comparative research project. 1. The conceptual hinterland – class, gender, feminism and industrial relations The British have a reputation for being obsessed by class and many of our social institutions are imbued with class – the education system, government, the judiciary, etc. Clearly, class has been (and arguably still is) at the centre of industrial relations theorizing. Whilst it would be hard to disagree that class and class relations continue to shape life chances in contemporary Britain (including education and employment opportunities), within the field of industrial relations there has been over the last 15 years or so a growing critique from British feminist industrial relations academics of the gender-blind nature of much of the field’s research and writing. The main critique centres on the inability of class analysis to uncover the specificity of women’s experiences, especially those related to the relationship between paid work and family responsibilities (Kirton 2006). Holgate et al. (2006) argue that a sole focus on class may fail to uncover the myriad of