Women's labour, exploited labour

Parents are being advised to give daughters less pocket money 
than sons, by the Equal Opportunities Commission of Victoria. The 
exhortation is contained on a new poster prepared by the 
organisation in response to Australian Bureau of Statistics 
figures that show Australian bosses still value women at only 85 
percent the rate of men.

"Prepare your daughter for working life", the Equal Opportunities 
Commission poster reads. "Give her less pocket money than your 
son."

"Unequal pay is an insidious form of sex discrimination, which 
requires top level commitment from government, unions and 
businesses to stamp it out", said the Commission's acting chief 
executive Matthew Carroll. "In 2004 women still don't earn as 
much as men, are subjected to sexual harassment, get sacked for 
being pregnant and suffer from widespread discrimination."

The Victorian Government launched a Pay Equity Inquiry earlier 
this year to investigate pay disparity between men and women.

"The Inquiry will investigate the pay disparity between males and 
females. The Commission is playing a key role in this inquiry, 
together with representatives from business, unions and 
government", said Mr Carroll. "The lack of affordable childcare 
combined with the pay gap forces most families to forfeit the 
earnings of the lower paid mother.

"We eagerly await the findings of the Inquiry which we see as a 
very positive first step to developing strategies to address this 
important issue."

The Equal Opportunity Commission has been celebrating the 25th 
anniversary of Deborah Wardley's (Lawrie) landmark battle to 
become Australia's first female commercial airline pilot.

Mr Carroll said this was the first complaint to come before the 
newly established Victorian Equal Opportunity Board and the first 
contested anti-discrimination case in Australia.

"Since Deborah's victory much of the blatant discrimination faced 
by women has decreased significantly." However, Deborah, who now 
lives in The Hague, said that Australia lags behind European 
countries in addressing sex discrimination, maternity leave 
entitlements, sexual harassment and sexist attitudes towards 
women.

"Despite years of legislation and education, we still have a long 
way to go to achieve gender equality."

The struggles for equal pay

1920s

Throughout the 1920s to the present day, equal pay continues to 
be a main priority for women unionists.

Some landmarks in the struggle for equal pay

Between 1926-1930 the following unions lodged claims for equal pay:

The Federated Liquor and Allied Trades Union

The Amalgamated Clothing and Allied Trades Union

The Manufacturing Grocers Employees Federation

1937

The Council of Action for Equal Pay (CAEP) was formed.

Muriel Heagney was the Secretary. The Council's aim was to fight 
for a commitment from the whole trade union movement for equal 
pay.

The CAEP was formed partly in response to women being unfairly 
blamed for unemployment during the Depression (because their 
labour was cheaper).

1939 The war years

Up to this point women made up approximately 20 percent of the 
workforce. During the war years participation was increased by up 
to one third and many women went into jobs previously held by 
men, especially defence production. This increased pressure for 
equal pay and greatly assisted the organisation of women into 
unions.

A women's wage board was established with the power to fix 
women's wages at 60-100 percent of male wages where they worked 
in male industries. The effect of this was to widen the 
discrepancies with women in the female-dominated industries.

1949

The Commonwealth Arbitration Court fixed the female basic wage at 
75 per cent of the male rate.

This was despite the ACTU's policy adopted in 1941 that rates 
should be decided according to the job that workers did and not 
on their gender.

The equal pay issue remained top of the agenda for women 
unionists, with special union committees set up in each State, 
until 1969 when equal pay was granted only to women who did 
exactly the same work as men.

The campaign for equal pay continued.

Zelda D'Aprano chained herself to the Commonwealth building with 
two other women and there was a protest where women only paid two 
thirds of the train fare as they received only two thirds of male 
wages.

1972

Equal pay for work of equal value was granted to be paid in three 
increments. However even now women don't get equal pay.

Employers have managed to avoid equal pay by:

* re-classifying women;

* not paying women over award payments;

* not promoting women;

Also:

* women are more likely to work part time.

1973

Working Women's Centre was formed.

The momentum achieved by the equal pay campaign heightened 
women's expectations and raised their awareness of deep seated 
discrimination. The Australian Council of Salaried and 
Professional Associations (ACSPA — peak council of "White collar 
trade unions) adopted a Working Women's Charter and established 
the first trade union Working Women's Centre with funding from 
the Whitlam Government in 1975, International Women's Year. The 
functions of the Centre were:

* to provide specialist advice on women's employment issues;

* to promote the involvement of women in trade unions;

* to provide resources to assist unions in their work for female members.

The Working Women's Centre did a great deal of work to promote 
women's equality, including the production of a school kit and a 
register of women in non-traditional jobs speakers to speak in 
schools. One of its major projects was setting up of a model 
child care centre and making childcare a union issue.

Some years later, the Centre became part of the ACTU when the 
ACTU and ACSPA merged. It then lost its shop front and direct 
contact with working women, to became more of a research unit, 
producing a multilingual newspaper distributed to factories, 
women and workplaces and developing policy material.

Working Women's Charter

Following a heated debate, the ACTU adopted its own Working 
Women's Charter at its 1977 Congress. It set out basic priorities 
and principles for achieving equality for women as workers and as 
union members. Women's Charter groups were set up all over the 
country to implement the policy. Unlike ACSPA's Charter, it did 
not recognise the right of married women to unemployment 
benefits, nor did it include paid maternity leave or recognise 
women's rights regarding abortion.

These short-comings were a direct result of the strong influence 
of the Right, especially the National Civic Council forces 
(Catholic Action) within the ACTU.

The struggle continues. Some of the gains that were made in the 
1970s and '80s have been rolled back, as employers never let up 
in their drive to exploit and divide workers.

Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that women's pay still 
falls far short of men. Average weekly earnings for female 
employees in August 2003 were 82 percent of males' — $790 as 
against $967 per week.

Under capitalism the struggle for equality never lets up. Howard, 
Costello and their mates would like to take women back to the 
days when "a woman's work is never done", women are "barefoot and 
pregnant", and obedient slaves to their husbands.

Woman's Work

What can a helpless female do?
Rock the cradle and bake the brew,
Or if no cradle, your fate afford,
Rock your brother's wife for board;
Or live in one room with an invalid cousin,
Or sew shop shirts for a dollar a dozen.

Or please some man by looking sweet,
Or please him by giving him things to eat,
Or please him by asking him much advice,
And thinking whatever he does is nice. 
Visit the poor (under supervision),
Doctor the sick who can't pay a physician,
Save men's time by doing their praying,
And other odd jobs there's no present pay in,
But if you presume to usurp their employments,
Or if you succeed where they knew you wouldn't,
Or make money fast when they said you couldn't,
Or learn to do things they'd proved were above you,
You'll hurt their feelings and then they won't love you.

Anon, 1915