Summary

Women workers have campaigned for equal pay since the early twentieth century, often in concert with their trade union organisations. The issue received prominence in 1969 when Zelda D'Aprano chained herself to the Commonwealth Offices in Melbourne in protest against the Arbitration Commission's refusal to grant 'equal pay for work of equal value' but only 'equal pay for equal work', which benefitted a mere 6 per cent of women workers, those who performed work identical to men working alongside them. In 1972 the Arbitration Commission acknowledged the right to 'equal pay for work of equal value', but this formal right has repeatedly battled with assumptions that the work performed in female-dominated occupations is not of equal value to that performed typically by men. Moreover, even in occupations where equal pay provisions are formally enshrined, such as teaching and most professions, women in practice earn less than their male counterparts, because of discrimination and a continuing greater share of childrearing and unpaid domestic labour. Struggles to win equal pay continued into the 2020s, and aim also to promote broader forms of gender equality.

Resources

Book Sections

• Cass, Bettina, 'Women's place in the class structure', in Wheelwright, E.L. & Buckley, K. (ed.), Essays in the political economy of Australian capitalism, volume 3, vol. 3, Australia & New Zealand Book Company, Brookvale, 1978, pp. 11-41. Image PDF Details

Correspondences

• Street, Jessie, Letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, 1943. Image PDF Details

Fliers

• Equal Pay Rally, Sydney, 1988, 1 pp. PDF Details

Lectures

• Street, Jessie?, The case for 'equal pay' in Australia. Image PDF Details

Letters

• Letter from Jesse Street to Mr Hughes of the Federated Clerks Union regarding an application of the Full Bench of the Industrial Commission for Equal Pay, 1939. Image PDF Details
• Scott, Rose, The State and Its Woman Employees, 19 Dec 1901. Image PDF Details
• Scott, Rose, Females at the Public Service Examination, Oct 29 1901?. Image PDF Details

Newspapers

• Direct Action 30, no. 30, Socialist Workers League, Sydney, 9 November 1972. Image PDF Details
• Socialist, no. 243, International Socialist Organisation, Sydney, November 1990. Image PDF Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Women's Employment Board rates demanded at mass meeting', North Queensland Guardian, 16 July 1943. Image PDF Details
• 'Wages, prices drice launched by housewives, unions; conference drafts plan to life living standards', Housewife (Sydney?), no. 2, October 1948. Image PDF Details
• Champion, Henry Hyde, 'The Anti-Sweating League', Champion (Melbourne), 26 October 1895. Image PDF Details
• Scott, Rose, 'Rose Scott, Letter to the Daily Telegraph, 19 December 1901', Daily Telegraph, 1901. Image PDF Details
• Scott, Rose, 'Women in the Public Service', The Herald, 1901. Image PDF Details

Pamphlets

• Appeal fo women electors, Industrial Print, Melbourne, 1958. Image PDF Details
• Women workers should receive equal pay, Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, Brisbane, 1 September 1958. Image PDF Details
• Equal Pay for the Sexes, Industrial Print, Melbourne, 1961. Image PDF Details
• Equal Wages Equal Power, 1972-5(?). Image PDF Details
• The case for equal pay, c-1940. Image PDF Details
• Equal Pay means rate for the job, c1958-9. Image PDF Details
• The interests of Women - and Men demand - Equal Pay for the sexes, c1960. Image PDF Details
• Equal Pay, c1960. Image PDF Details
• A marriage of necessity; equal pay, c1960. Image PDF Details
• The facts of life? What every woman should know., Queensland Trades and Labor Council, Brisbane, c1958. Image PDF Details
• Equal Pay Week Nov. 25-29, Industrial Print, Melbourne, c1963. Image PDF Details
• Equal pay for the sexes, Industrial Print, Melbourne, n.d.. Image PDF Details
• Australian Council of Trade Unions, Equal Pay for the Sexes, Melbourne, 1941. Image PDF Details
• Bayne, Mollie (ed.), Australian women at war, Research Group of the Left Book Club of Victoria, Melbourne, July 1943. Image PDF Details
• Council of Action for Equal Pay, Are women paid men's rates, Sydney, 1942. Image PDF Details
• Greer, J.H., The Social Evil. Prostitution: Its Cause and Cure, Industrial Workers of the World, Sydney, n.d.[1917], 48 pp. PDF Details
• Miles, J.B. (Jack), Work among women, How to organise series no. 6, Marx House, Sydney, 20 November 1943. Image PDF Details
• Trades Hall Council Melbourne, Statement preapred by the Committee appointed to propagate the principle of Equal Pay for the Sexes, and Endorsed by the above Council, Council of Action for Equal Pay, Sydney, 19 January 1943. Image PDF Details