Empowerment and union workplace delegates: a gendered analysis Catherine Le Capitaine, Gregor Murray and Christian Lévesque ABSTRACT This article examines the empowerment of female and male workplace union del- egates in the education sector in Quebec (Canada). Key power resources and strategic capabilities are significant variables for both sexes, highlighting commonalities in delegate empowerment. Other differences point to the gendered construction of del- egate empowerment, with important consequences for union renewal strategies. 1 INTRODUCTION The leadership provided by workplace union delegates is the source of renewed interest on the part of both union organisations and researchers. In the face of increasing challenges to union representativeness and legitimacy, workplace union delegates have been identified as strategic actors (Hege et al., 2011). These delegates play a range of roles, from handling the basics in the administration of the collective agreement and representing workers to local management to playing a broader organ- ising, educational and political role on behalf of the union (Roby, 1995). Workplace delegates are pivotal because of their two-way role within their unions: they represent their members within broader union structures and policy making; they also present union activities and strategies to the membership. It is especially important to under- stand their role because of the cross-cutting pressures they face: from local manage- ments and the contexts in which they work; from the members who designate them; from the renewal strategies of union organisations seeking to enhance their role. This article focuses on the factors that empower and disempower female and male workplace union delegates. The gendered nature of the analysis offers particular insights into delegate empowerment. Many authors have highlighted the invisibility of women in the study of industrial relations (Colgan and Ledwith, 2000; Danieli, 2006; Greene, 2002) and of trade unionism (Healy and Kirton, 2012). Although a number of feminist studies emphasise the importance of gendered recruitment strategies to ❒ Catherine Le Capitaine is Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Relations, Université Laval. Gregor Murray holds the Canada Research Chair on Globalization and Work in the School of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal. Christian Lévesque is Professor of employment rela- tions at HEC Montréal. All three authors are researchers in the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT). Correspondence should be addressed to Catherine Le Capitaine, Department of Industrial Relations, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada G1K 7P4; email: Catherine. LeCapitaine@rlt.ulaval.ca Industrial Relations Journal 44:4, 389–408 ISSN 0019-8692 © 2013 The Author(s) Industrial Relations Journal © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.