Yugoslavia On the path of a hard battle Women's day The past struggle for equality Women's day The future

y Renee Sams

WOMEN's struggle for equal pay for work of equal value, a struggle which
has been waged since early in the nineteenth century, is not yet over. Big
differences still exist in pay between men and women, according to the
government's recently released statistics.

But for just how long has this persisted; what's the background? As early
as 1834, there was an attempt by the Glasgow Spinners Association to
negotiate equal rates of pay for men and women. The early trade unions
aimed not only to improve pay and conditions but to secure for their
members control over the produce of their labours.

The idea of workers organising themselves sent shudders through the middle
classes in the nineteenth century and when women organised it was seen as a
threat to society itself. Even the small numbers involved threatened the
power of men over women as well as the hold of employers over workers. The
"natural order" of things would be disturbed, they thought.

Women workers formed a large pool of docile cheap labour, which could be
hired and fired for seasonal work. It suited the bosses down to the ground
to encourage male workers in the belief that equal pay for women would
undercut their wages.

It was not until 1888 that the Trades Union Congress formally accepted that
"where women do the same work as men they shall receive equal pay".
Employers did all they could to evade the issue arguing that men and women
have different needs, they paid "fair wages" they insisted.

Postmaster General Herbert Samuel declared in 1915 that "if you pay a
single woman the same wage as a family man you are giving her a much higher
standard of comfort than you are giving him".

The argument that women were physically weaker than men and were often
away from work because they were sick or were looking after sick children
was used by government and employers to keep the working class divided.

The development of new technology inevitably brought about changes to
working class society. But skilled jobs remained the province of men, while
unskilled and semi-skilled jobs were left as "women's work", locked firmly
in the lower paid bracket.

At the end ofthe century, the growth of office work provided new kinds of
jobs, as was the case earlier in the century: men became supervisors and
managers while women did the filing and typing.

After nearly 100 years campaigning by the suffrage movement women were
finally granted the right to a vote in 1927. But equal pay was not on the
cards despite the arguments of women doing men's work during the First
World War.

Between the two World Wars, there was little advancement for women's
causes although, again, the issue was raised as men went off to the front
and women were left to work in the factories producing the munitions.

There was little change for women -- they were still economically
oppressed: in the workplace they worked full-time for half pay, while in
the home they worked full-time but unpaid. That's despite the fact that the
long post-war boom provided jobs for more women than ever in the expansion
of white collar work and the welfare state.

1968 was a memorable year: the uprising of students brought Paris to a
standstill and protests were rising against the Vietnam War. Amid the
turmoil, in Britain a group of women machinists brought the mighty Ford
factory at Dagenham to a halt.

The machinists were demanding regrading to give them parity with men as
recognition of their skills. A shocked Labour government was forced to send
in Employment Minister Barbara Castle to help negotiate and after three
weeks they accepted 92% of the men's C grade pay.

During the 1960s, the Labour government had aroused women's expectations
that equal pay was on its way, but by 1968 they had not delivered. There
was also impatience with the failure of the TUC to meet women's demands. As
strike committee member Rose Boland said: "I think the Ford women have
definitely shaken the women of this country."

The strike led to the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Equal
Rights (NJACCER) being formed. Labour maintained its commitment to equal
pay in principle but claimed that "in the present economic circumstances it
was not possible to take immediate steps to give full implementation to the
principle."

Against this background there was the development of women's liberation.
It opened up women's discussion of contraception, abortion, and the right
to control their fertility -- something regarded with horror by the
churches and governments. Women in the trade union movement were far from
seeing it all as a positive advance, but it did bring about a change in
social attitudes that has had some beneficial effects.

The development of the pill, which gave women the ability to choose when
to have a child was a step on the way to helping women in the struggle for
equal rights. Their efforts were finally rewarded by the passing of the
Equal Pay Act in 1970 which gave the employers five years in which to
implement the provisions of the Act.

The NJACCWER, which not only included women from political groups of the
left, but from women's organisations dating back to the suffragette days,
also discussed proposals to lobby for a Sex Discrimination Act. All this
activity sparked off the first National Women's Liberation Conference in 1970.

Those five years had given employers ample scope for finding creative ways
to avoid implementing the Act. Women workers began to find that equal pay,
even when some of them managed to get it, did not alter the pattern of
discrimination embedded in capitalist society .


discrimination


Discrimination affected every aspect of society, and every area of women's
life including employment, education, training, benefits, sick pay and
pensions. In fact, women's skills as a whole were undervalued.

In 1972 the TUC finally agreed on the abolition of discrimination against
women in employment practices and committed itself "to the achievement of
industrial equality for women."

Although by then many trades unions had policies of seeking equal
opportunities for women, the old craft unions which had a mainly male
membership still expressed the old fears, that women would depress their
wages, take their jobs, and dash their chances of promotion.

January 1976 heralded a new era for women, or al least so they roped. The
Equal Pay Act became fully operational and the Sex Discrimination Act
became law. To assist in the operation of these new laws, the Equal
Opportunities Commission was established.

The Employment Protection Act of 1975 granted the right of women not to be
unfairly dismissed on the grounds of pregnancy, and put the right to
maternity leave and maternity pay on the statute books.

Nevertheless, the shortcomings of this legislation were recognised. There
were calls from the TUC Women's Conference "to close the loopholes" and for
the wording of the Act to be amended to provide for "equal remuneration for
men and women for work of equal value."

The media created an illusion of great successes, with the first woman
Prime Minister, the first woman pilot, or bricklayer, or firefighter. But a
decade later, statistics showed little progress between '76 and '86: women
were earning 75.7 per cent of the male rate; by 1982 women's average
earnings had dropped to 74.8 per cent of the male rate.

But women would not be silenced and throughout the period they fought to
achieve new rights and defend old ones. Trade unions published an enormous
amount of material relating to women's issues, raising awareness that the
oppression of women has many forms. Women fought successful campaigns for
unions to take on board such issues as abortion, sexual harassment, and the
portrayal of women as sex objects.

The election of a Tory government in 1979 saw an onslaught on the trade
union movement led by Prime Minister Thatcher, which introduced draconian
anti-union laws and accelerated the de-industrialisation of Britain. This
has seriously undermined working class life with the erosion of wages and
conditions of work for men and women.

With the closure of mines and the destruction of heavy industry, trade
union membership loss has been severe. The anti-trade union legislation,
which continues to undermine the more positive changes since Labour took
office, must be repealed if any significant improvements are to be made in
the lot of all workers.

But those advances that have been established must continue to be
defended. It is now urgent that more women workers join their unions and
organise and work for better pay and conditions. This is the only way any
serious advances will be made that will be of benefit to the whole of our
class.