STAFF PROFILE
Professor Cathy Brigden
Research Interests
- Trade union women’s history
- Role of peak labour councils
- Labour History
- Trade union theory and practice
Current Research
Cathy’s current research includes an exploration of women in trade unions and peak unions; analysing historical patterns of women’s representation in peak unions. The initial stage of the project examined the historical and contemporary role of women trade union delegates in the Victorian Trades Hall Council (THC). The current phase of the project includes examination of the Female Confectioners Union, a key women’s union. She is also engaged in a research project on Union Collaboration exploring inter-union federations and alliances (with Dr Sarah Kaine, University of Technology, Sydney).
Current Projects:
- Separate organising and the Female Confectioners Union, 1916-1945
- Union Collaboration in Australia in the 21st Century (with Dr Sarah Kaine, University of Technology, Sydney).
- Gender and peak unions
Dr Cathy Brigden has taught in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in employment relations, Australian industrial relations, negotiation and advocacy skills, and occupational health and safety.
She is coordinator of the Women + Work research cluster in the Centre for Sustainable Organisations and Work, RMIT University.
- M.Com (Melb)
- PhD(Syd)
Professional membership
- Executive committee, Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand
- Member: Editorial Board, Labour History
- Member: Australian Society for the Study of Labour History
- Member: Industrial Relations Society
- Member: Labor and Working Class History Assocation
- Member: Union Strategy Group, University of Sydney
- Brigden, C.,Fricker, A.,Johnson, R.,Chester, A. (2020). Speaking Together: Reflections on Reconciliation, Yarning Circles, and Signature Pedagogies In: Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, Springer, Singapore
- Brigden, C. (2019). Voice And Agency: Workers With A Disability And Trade Unionism In: Labour & Industry, 29, 118 - 131
- Milner, L.,Brigden, C. (2019). Staging international communism: British�Australian radical theatre connections In: Contemporary British History, 33, 507 - 523
- Milner, L.,Brigden, C. (2018). No handmaidens here: women, volunteering and gender dynamics in the Sydney New Theatre In: Women's History Review, 27, 266 - 287
- Macdonald, F.,Charlesworth, S.,Brigden, C. (2018). Access to Collective Bargaining for Low Paid Workers In: Collective Bargaining Under the Fair Work Act, The Federation Press, Annadale, Australia
- Brigden, C. (2018). Work, Identity and Trade Union Responses and Strategies In: Work and Identity: Contemporary Perspectives on Workplace Diversity, Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland
- Mees, B.,Brigden, C. (2017). Workers' Capital: Industry funds and the fight for universal superannuation in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney
- Gregory, S.,Brigden, C. (2017). Gendered scenes: Conceptualising the negotiation of paid work and child care among performers in film, television and theatre production In: Media International Australia, 163, 151 - 162
- Kaine, S.,Brigden, C. (2015). Union responses to regulatory change: Strategies of protective layering In: The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 26, 614 - 630
- Brigden, C.,Milner, L. (2015). Radical theatre mobility: Unity Theatre, UK, and the New Theatre, Australia In: New Theatre Quarterly, 31, 328 - 342
1 PhD Current Supervisions2 PhD Completions
- Worker voice in the regions: Re-imagining social and economic transition. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2021 from (2021 to 2024)