Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the ban

Question

Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and 1940s embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period. Elizabeth Faue's study of the labor movement in Minneapolis argues that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization and by the separation of unions from the community politics from which industrial unionism had emerged. Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions at the community level, contributions that made women's ultimate fate within the city's labor movement all the more poignant: as unions reached the peak of their strength in the 1940s, the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life.

In her study of CIO industrial unions from the 1930s to the 1970s, Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women. Gabin shows that, despite the unions' tendency to marginalize women's issues, working women's demands were a constant undercurrent within the union, and she stresses the links between the unions' women activists and the wave of feminism that emerged in the 1960s.

In her study of CIO industrial unions from the 1930s to the 1970s, Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women. Gabin shows that, despite the unions' tendency to marginalize women's issues, working women's demands were a constant undercurrent within the union, and she stresses the links between the unions' women activists and the wave of feminism that emerged in the 1960s.   1 
 1. According to the passage, Faue's study and Gabin's study agree in that both

A. attribute the inclusion of women in unions to the policies of the CIO
B. emphasize the importance of unions at the community level
C. argue that women played important roles in the establishment of industrial union organizations
D. suggest that women in industrial union organizations played a subordinate role
E. suggest that the interests of women workers were incompatible with those of unions in general

2 
 2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?

A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions.
B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions.
C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.
D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion.
E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions.

3 
 3. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

A. presenting two views
B. reconciling two antithetical claims
C. assessing conflicting evidence
D. weakening a generally accepted argument
E. tracing the development of an ideology

anairamitch1804 · Accepted Answer

1)
PARA 1: Elizabeth Faue's 
... the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period.. 
.. women were marginalized by union bureaucratization..

PARA 2 : Nancy F. Gabin 
..Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination...

A – Inclusion of women could be attributed to non discrimination and inclusion policies but we can not infer that both ladies(E.F and NG) agreed on this point. Nowhere mentioned in the passage. – Eliminated
B – importance of unions at community level – again not mentioned in passage.
C- according to the passage – 
” Faue stresses the importance of women’s contribution to the development of unions at the community level”
“Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women”
But there is no mention of establishment of union – Eliminated
D – Both acknowledged pervasive male domination and women where marginalized. So it suggests that women played a subordinate role.
E – Interests of women workers were not compatible – Nowhere mentioned in the passage.

Hence D is correct.

2)
A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions

The passage says 'to which women's contributions were so vital' and 'Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions'. This clearly shows that women actually did contribute, nothing prevented them from doing so.

B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in Industrial unions

The passage says 'unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period'. That means that the gender ideology existed before the unions did so it couldn't have resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions. In fact, it's probably the opposite - the marginalization of women resulted from the gender ideology.

C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions

Like I mentioned above, the passages suggests that gender ideology caused the marginalization of women in industrial unions. The passage states 'the community base   ...became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life'. The industrial unions marginalized the women and their issues as they began to view them as irrelevant - you can infer that this is because of the prevailing gender ideology. The 'significant effect' is that gender ideology actually prevented the advancement of women issues. Thus the passage implies that the gender ideology negatively affected the way women's issues were treated and thus had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.

D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion

Gender ideology is the exact opposite. The tenets of the industrial unions 'embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion'. The passages uses 'although' in the same sentence to suggest a contrast in the way they actually did treat issues and further states that 'the role of women... reflected the prevailing gender ideology' - the complete opposite of its tenets.

E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions

the passage states 'as unions reached the peak of their strength in the 1940s, the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life.' This shows that as the unions grew, the way they viewed women and their issues became worse or irrelevant.

I probably wouldn't focus on the word women's issues - the purpose of industrial unions is to address and support issues of the industrial workers. The first passage is shows how gender ideology affected how women were viewed in industrial unions. A natural byproduct would be the way their issues were viewed and treated as well. In addition, the second passage implies that the viewpoint in the first paragraph is that women weren't really able to advance their interests through this statement: 'but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women.'

JarvisR · Answer

Time taken 8 mins.
Q1 & 2 spoiled my timing.
 
1. According to the passage, Faue's study and Gabin's study agree in that both
D. suggest that women in industrial union organizations played a subordinate role
 "Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions"
 
2. Which of the following can be  inferred  regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?
B: It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions. 
 >>the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period.Blah blah.. that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization ..
 Option B is something that we cant prove from given argument. It may be that it led to MOW.
C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.
 >>"the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life." Thi indirectly implies C. 
D:Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion. 
 >> Opposite. Also D is said abt CIO not GI.
 industrial union organizations ..... embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period.

3. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with
A. presenting two views
C. assessing conflicting evidence
Close call for me between A and C.
 But this is why A is correct.Second Para doesnt present conflicting evidence but something that was missed or not covered in Faue's study(Para 1).
"Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains ..."

GMATNinja · Answer

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?

A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions. -  This can be eliminated because we are told that women did in fact make important contributions to the establishment of the unions: "Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions at the community level." Eliminate (A).

B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions. -  The passage does say that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization, but this reflected the PREVAILING gender idealogy of the period. In other words, the marginalization reflected an idealogy that already existed. The marginalization did not CAUSE the idealogy. Eliminate (B).

C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions. -  We can infer that the prevailing idealogy was one that marginalized women. So the marginalization of women in unions was a product of this prevailing idealogy. If a group is marginalized, then its power and importance is reduced. Being marginalized would obviously affect a group's ability to make advances. (C) looks good.

D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion. -  We are told that the unions themselves generally "embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion", but the prevailing gender idealogy caused women to be marginalized. This idealogy was one that CAUSED discrimination, not one that upheld nondiscrimination. Eliminate (D).

E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions. -  The unions did not mitigate (i.e. lessen) the discriminatory effects of the prevailing ideology. Instead, the unions REFLECTED the discriminatory effects of the prevailing ideology. Eliminate (E).

Choice (C) is the best answer. I hope that helps!

Anoushka1995 · Answer

Can you please explain why option A is incorrect and option C correct for Q2?

KarishmaB · Answer

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?

A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions.

"Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions at the community level, ..."
" the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital "

show that women did make significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions.

B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions.

"gender ideology" was not the result of marginalisation of women. The ideology was that women were marginalised.

C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.

Note here that effect on advancement does not mean it led to advancement. The effect could be negative too i.e. it did not let advancement happen. Due to the prevailing gender ideology

The very first sentence tells you that gender ideology had a negative impact by using the word "Although"
"Although the industrial union organizations ... embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period."
Then use of "women were marginalized" etc in rest of paragraph one shows that gender ideology had significant impact.

D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion.

No, as shown in option (C), the first sentence tells us that union adopted these tenets but gender ideology led to different results.

E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions.

No, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology.

Answer (C)

anshul0130 · Answer

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma  - Can you pls share your understanding of the passage ?

KarishmaB · Answer

These are the key points of the passage:

Although the union orgs that emerged under the banner of CIO in the 1930s and 1940s embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period (it means they were discriminated against).

Elizabeth Faue's study argues that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization though they made important contribution to the development of unions at the community level.

Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions,  but  maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women. 
 
With the use of "but", the author shows the contrast between the two views - Faue says women played almost no role but Gabin says that they were able to create some space. 
Though both agree that women did play a subordinate role.

agrasan · Answer

Hi experts  KarishmaB   GMATNinja   MartyMurray

In question 3, below are my reasonings to options reject B and C.

Option B is wrong as the author is not adding any view of his own, he is just presenting two views and there is no attempt to align them with each other.
Option C is wrong: Even if we assume Gabin presented conflicting evidence (but maintains that women...), C would only summarize passage-2, not the entire passage (P1 + P2)

Please let me know if I am faltering somewhere.

GMATNinja · Answer

That all sounds good! In addition, there's no real "evidence" presented in the passage. The author presents the views and conclusions of Faue and Gabin without discussing the evidence behind those views/conclusions.

The "but" in "but maintains" does not indicate conflicting evidence. Instead, it highlights a difference between Faue's view and Gabin's view.

bestreturn · Answer

For Q3 how do we reject E?
Both of the views seems to give some history about the role of women in the union and how they were marginalized. The second paragraph seems to connect it to the wave of feminism and gender ideology

egmat · Answer

bestreturn  Good question; I like how you're thinking! I'll try to address your doubt- this is actually one of the most common traps in GMAT RC primary purpose questions - confusing what the  content discusses  with what the  author is doing .

Why E is Wrong?

"Tracing the development of an ideology" means the  author  would show how an ideology  evolved over time  - like showing:
- Stage 1: Ideology begins this way
- Stage 2: It transforms to this
- Stage 3: It further evolves to this

But look at what the author actually does:
-  Paragraph 1:  "Elizabeth Faue's study argues that..."
-  Paragraph 2:  "Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges... but maintains that..."

The author is  presenting two scholarly views  (Faue's and Gabin's) about the same topic. Yes, these scholars discuss historical events and gender ideology, but the  author  isn't tracing anything - they're just reporting what two different researchers found.

The Key Distinction: 
- What Faue and Gabin discuss = historical content about women in unions
- What the  author  does = presents these two scholarly interpretations

Think of it this way: If I tell you "Smith thinks X" and "Jones thinks Y," I'm  presenting views , not tracing development - even if Smith and Jones are both discussing historical evolution!

Here is a framework for "Primary Purpose" questions that can help you:
 
When you see scholars/studies mentioned by name, check:
→ One view presented? Look for "arguing a position"
→ Two views presented neutrally? Look for "presenting views" 
→ Evolution shown by author? Look for "tracing development"

The structure here (Faue says X, Gabin says Y) is classic "presenting two views."

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any follow-up questions you may have. Good luck!

kartickdey · Answer

GMATNinja  It is stated "Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and 1940s embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period." It appears from this sentence that the author tried to weaken a generally accepted argument that CIO was non discriminational and inclusive. Please tell me where my thought process is wrong

guddo · Answer

1. According to the passage, Faue's study and Gabin's study agree in that both

Both scholars describe unions as male-dominated and say women were pushed to the margins, even if Gabin also shows women found some room to act.

(A) attribute inclusion of women to CIO policies

The passage does not say CIO policies caused women’s inclusion.

(B) emphasize importance of unions at the community level

Faue does, but Gabin focuses on women’s political space inside unions and links to 1960s feminism, not community level unions.

(C) argue women played important roles in establishing industrial unions

Faue highlights women’s community contributions, but Gabin is not framed as “establishment” focused.

(D) suggest women in industrial union organizations played a subordinate role

Yes. Faue says women were marginalized, and Gabin “acknowledges pervasive male domination” and marginalization of women’s issues.  Both accept women were subordinate.   That is their shared point.

(E) suggest women’s interests were incompatible with unions in general

Not stated. Gabin says women’s demands were a constant undercurrent, not incompatible.

Answer: (D)
 
2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?

“Gender ideology” is presented as the prevailing view of the era that shaped women’s role in unions and helped keep women marginalized.

(A) prevented women from making significant contributions to establishment

Contradicted by Faue stressing women’s vital contributions at the community level.

(B) resulted from marginalization of women in unions

The passage treats ideology as preexisting and shaping union roles, not as caused by marginalization.

(C) had a significant effect on the advancement of women’s issues within industrial unions

Yes. The passage links prevailing gender ideology to women being marginalized and women’s issues being sidelined.  So it clearly affected how far women’s issues could advance.   This is the best inference.

(D) primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion

Those are CIO principles, not the gender ideology.

(E) effects were mitigated by growth of industrial unions

Not stated.

Answer: (C)
 
3. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

The passage lays out Faue’s view and then Gabin’s view, showing how they overlap and differ about women in unions.

(A) presenting two views

Yes. It summarizes Faue’s argument, then summarizes Gabin’s argument.  That is the main structure and purpose.   It is primarily a comparison of perspectives.

(B) reconciling two antithetical claims

They are not fully antithetical; they share male domination and differ on how much space women created.

(C) assessing conflicting evidence

No detailed evidence weighing, mainly description of scholars’ positions.

(D) weakening a generally accepted argument

Not the goal.

(E) tracing development of an ideology

Not the focus.

Answer: (A)

Borrat · Answer

Here's the full study sheet:
 
PASSAGE MAP
Topic: Women's role in CIO industrial unions (1930s–1940s)
Overall structure: Two historians agree on the problem (male domination) but differ on emphasis
Faue:
 
 Women contributed vitally at the community level 
 That community base made unions successful 
 BUT as unions peaked in the 1940s, community base became irrelevant to institutional life 
 Women's contributions got sidelined — Faue finds this poignant (her word, not the women's feeling)  
Gabin:
 
 Acknowledges male domination (agrees with Faue on the problem) 
 BUT more optimistic — women carved out political space within some unions 
 Women's demands were a constant undercurrent 
 Links union women activists to 1960s feminism  
Key contrast: Both agree women were subordinate institutionally. They disagree on whether women had agency within that subordination.
Key irony: CIO officially embraced nondiscrimination and inclusion — but gender ideology undermined women in practice. "Although" signals this contrast.
 
QUESTION 1 — Where Faue and Gabin AGREE
Correct answer: D — both suggest women played a subordinate role in unions
A — WRONG — Neither author attributes women's inclusion to CIO policies specifically
 B — WRONG — Only Faue emphasizes community level, Gabin doesn't
 C — WRONG — Faue argues this, Gabin only acknowledges it — they don't both argue it
 D — CORRECT — Both agree unions were male dominated and women's issues were marginalized = subordinate role
 E — WRONG — Opposite of what both suggest — both imply women's interests were present and persistent
Your mistake to remember: You correctly sensed both authors were highlighting women's contributions and agency — but subordinate refers to their institutional position, not their actual importance. You can be vital AND be treated as subordinate. That's precisely the irony both authors are pointing to.
 
QUESTION 2 — What can be inferred about "gender ideology"
Correct answer: C — it had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues
A — WRONG — Women did make significant contributions (especially community level) — ideology didn't fully prevent this
 B — WRONG — Causation is reversed — ideology drove marginalization, it didn't result from it
 C — CORRECT — Ideology is what hindered women's advancement within unions — significant effect, even if negative
 D — WRONG — Those are the CIO's stated principles — the ideology is precisely what contradicted them. "Although" signals this contrast
 E — WRONG — Never mentioned, and opposite is implied — union growth worsened women's position
Your mistake to remember: D is a classic trap — it takes two things the passage contrasts and presents them as the same thing. Always pay attention to contrast words like "although" — they signal that two things are being set against each other, not equated.
 
QUESTION 3 — Author's primary concern
Correct answer: A — presenting two views
A — CORRECT — Author is neutral and descriptive throughout — simply presenting Faue then Gabin
 B — WRONG — Views aren't antithetical (they share common ground) and author isn't reconciling them
 C — WRONG — No conflicting evidence is being weighed or assessed
 D — WRONG — Author has no argumentative agenda — never challenges or weakens any position
 E — WRONG — Author never traces how an ideology developed over time
Your mistake to remember: On primary purpose questions, identify the author's tone first. This author is purely descriptive and balanced — that immediately rules out any answer with argumentative language like "reconciling," "weakening," or "assessing conflict."

Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the ban

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Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the ban

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