Ardha Danieli
Industrial Relations Journal, 37, 4, 329 - 343

Abstract

This article extends the critique of how industrial relations research continues to be gender-blind and argues that it is in part a result of early definitions which relegated 'personal' relations as outside the boundaries of the field and in part a result of a simultaneous strategy of acknowledgement and abdication, acknowledging that gender is important while at the same time arguing that gender does not need to be addressed. In order to demonstrate how gender is central to industrial relations, the article uses Antonio Gramsci's concepts of 'hegemony', 'ideology', 'good sense' and 'common sense' to illustrate how patriarchal common sense is drawn on by both managers and trade unionists in negotiations over hours of work in a manufacturing firm in the North -west of England. It is argued that in order to include gender as a central feature of industrial relations research, it is necessary to analyse how the interests of capital, labour and patriarchy are embedded in negotiations on the shopfloor.