SEX AND GENDER

Sources from the Public Record Office

Parts 3 and 4: Equal Opportunities and Pay

Publisher's Note

In the late nineteenth century the women's movement began to raise significant questions about equal pay, rights and opportunities. The Great War of 1914-1918 created a labour shortage, with many different jobs, once considered the sole preserve of men, being filled by women. The proliferation of war work by women in munitions factories, in heavy and light industry, and throughout all sectors of the economy, radically challenged previous perceptions about "equal pay for equal work". However, real and unambiguous progress in terms of economic and social justice for women workers has not easily been forthcoming.

Since 1914 the Equal Pay issue has passed through a series of different phases as charted in the Editorial Introduction by our consultant editor, Harold L Smith, Department of History, University of Houston - Victoria. We are most grateful for his help in selecting the files of documents to be included in Parts 3 and 4 of this microfilm project. These archival materials track all the various developments, including Treasury Agreements, trade union activity, the work of campaign pressure groups and committees, the Royal Commission on Equal Pay, political debates, government legislation and amendments, the Treaty of Rome and EC directives. This project will open up a wide array of documentary evidence allowing scholars and researchers scope for many new avenues of exploration and analysis.

The following list provides an indication of the wide variety of source material included from a range of different PRO Classes:

ED 23/282 Women's staff associations: representations about employment of women clerks and marriage
bar, 1910-1934.

T 214/543 Women factory inspectors (class II): history of equal pay, 1892-1954.

CAB 26/1 Home Affairs Committee Minutes (discussion of Report of the War Cabinet Committee on Women
in Industry), 16 May 1919.

LAB 2/249/7 Committee of enquiry into women's wages in relation to men: advance in wages to women
munition workers, 1917-1918.

LAB 2/252/
LR19160/2/18 Special Arbitration Tribunal: Memorandum on payment of semi-skilled time workers.
Suggestion for provisions in Consolidated Order regarding equal pay for equal work, 1918.

CAB 26/1 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill, 1919.

ED 24/1783 Equal pay for equal work for men and women teachers: papers and reports, 1919-1935.

HO 45/17957/477303 Equal pay for men and women, 1925-1939.

T 162/974/E21970/03/1 Scientific and professional staff: Women's equivalent of men's scales as
recommended by the Carpenter Committee, 1930-1937.

LAB 14/254 Request from Women's Organisations for clause to give women equal pay and opportunities to
be included in the Factories Bill, 1937.

T 215/237-245 Equal pay issues, 1937-1957.

HO 186/1471 Civil Defence Volunteers: Different rates of pay for men and women, 1939-1944.

HO 186/1038 Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme: Equal compensation for men and women civil defence
personnel, 1942-1943.

CAB 118/75 Participation of women in post-war planning and reconstruction, 1943.

T 189/1-19 Papers concerning the Royal Commission on Equal Pay, 1944-1946.

T 162/1018/

E47977/02/Annexe 1 Royal Commission on Equal Pay: Minutes and Memorandum of Working Party; notes
of deputation to Chancellor of the Exchequer from National Council staff side, 1944-1945.

PREM 8/1053 Suggested creation of Life Peers and of admission of women to the
House of Lords, 1946-1949.

PREM 8/1396 Equal Pay, 1946-1951.

LAB 13/238 International Labour Organisation: Montreal 1946: Equal pay and work for women.

T 215/479 Civil Service National Whitley Council Negotiating Committee on Commission's Recommendation:
abolition of marriage bar for women in Civil Service, 1946-1958.

T 215/484-490 Equal Pay in the Civil Service: representations from TUC, Staff Associations and Outside
Bodies, 1946-1958.

LAB 13/358 International Labour Organisation: Conference, 31st session 1950: Report V (1): Equal
remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value.

LAB 13/407-408 International Labour Organisation: Conference, 34th session 1951: Report XII (1) on equal
remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value.

LAB 16/464 International Labour Office: Remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value:
Convention 100.

LAB 10/816 International Labour Conference: 34th session, Geneva: Convention (107) and Recommendation
(90) covering equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value; papers for 1948-
1954.

LAB 13/886 Governing Body 117th Session: Convention No: 100 and Recommendation No: 90 covering
equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value; Government action 1948-1959.

LAB 13/867 Equal Pay Campaign Committee: correspondence from the committee and other organisations,
1951-1952.

T 215/165 Family Allowances as a corollary to the introduction of equal pay,
1951-1953.

T 215/777-780 Equal pay: policy, 1951-1960.

LAB 10/1143 Charles Pannell MP: motion on equal pay in the public services, 1952.

T 214/409 NHS: employment of women on work normally performed by men, 1953-1959.

LAB 10/2094 Equal Pay: Correspondence, 1955-1965.

PREM 11/1700 Equal pay for women in the engineering industry, 1956.

LAB 10/2382 Working Party on Equal Pay: draft report, 1964-1965.

LAB 10/2514 Working Party on Equal Pay: preparation of final report, 1965.

WO 32/19337 Sex discrimination in recruitment and employment: proposals for employment of women,
1964-1967.

LAB 10/2582 Report of Working Party on Equal Pay: discussions with TUC and CBI; notes of meetings and
papers, 1965-1966.

LAB 13/2616 EEC: equal pay, papers for 1966-1969.

LAB 10/3131 Equal Pay: Joint Meetings with TUC and CBI, 1967-1968.

CAB 134/3118 Management Committee paper, "Equal Pay", 25 July 1969.

LAB 43/577 Sex discrimination in employment: study group for legislation for equal opportunity, 1969-1970.

BN 72/107 Equal Pay Bill, 1970.

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