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‘It’s not only what we say but what we do’: Pay inequalities and gendered workplace democracy in Argentinian worker coops

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  • Collette Oseen

Abstract

In a study conducted by the author in 2006 of five mixed-sex, worker-led cooperatives in Buenos Aires, all of the workers in each of the coops were paid exactly the same. Five years later, only two of the worker cooperatives – both dominated by women – came even close to maintaining the same pay for everyone. The other three cooperatives, all dominated by male workers, had instituted hierarchical pay scales which paralleled a concomitant decrease in workplace democracy. An increase in pay inequities and a decrease in worker democracy went together; moreover, the two paralleled an increasingly inhospitable workplace for women. This article addresses two, interconnected, questions: How did this intertwining of pay and worker democracy happen, and more specifically, how was this process gendered?

Suggested Citation

  • Collette Oseen, 2016. "‘It’s not only what we say but what we do’: Pay inequalities and gendered workplace democracy in Argentinian worker coops," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 37(2), pages 219-244, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:37:y:2016:i:2:p:219-244
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X14539571
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ignacio Bretos & Rory Ridley-Duff & David Wren, 2025. "Crafting alternative work organisations: Paradoxes of workplace democracy and emancipation in worker-buyout cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 46(4), pages 1002-1030, November.

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