What accounts for this upsurge in unionization among clerical workers? First, more women have entered the workforce in the past few years, and more of them plan to remain working until retirement age, Consequently, they are probably more concerned than their prodecessors were about job security and economic benefits. Also, the women's movement has succeeded in legitimizing the economic and political activism of women on their own behalf, thereby producing a more positive attitude toward unions. The absence of any comparable increase in unionization among private-sector clerical workers, however identifies the primary catalyst-the structural change in the multioccupational public-sector unions them-selves. Over the past twenty years, the occupational distribution in these unions has been steadily shifting from predominantly blue-collar to predominantly while-collar, Because there are far more women in white-collar jobs, an increase in the proportion of female members has accompanied the occupational shift and has altered union policy-making in favor of organizing women and addressing women's issues..