Politics

Raging for Wages – An Extract

EqualPay1untitled

equalpay5untitled

‘Even at the early age of three, I had some instincts as to the relations of cause and effect, and the basic need to remove the cause of the trouble.’[1] Her words become an epitaph in Kay Keasey’s spirited Australian Women’s Weekly article, ‘Jessie Street – Salute to “A Class Traitor”’. Published on 5 August 1970, shortly after Street’s death, this tribute celebrates a woman warrior’s life.

As warrior, agitator, lobbyist, thinker, Street is not alone.

When Di Graham protests against pay less than her subordinates, she ‘… was told it was inevitable, the government made the wages rules. Yet the firm kept publicising my capabilities in trade journals.’

The repudiation propels her to action.

Unjust Ethos, Unequal Practice

The dissonance for women paid less than a man for working equally hard or better sometimes generated silent shame – although why women should be shamed by shameful employers’ exploitation and industrial bodies’ ignorance was moot.  Sometimes women harboured a sense of injustice, erupting when newspapers reported wage disparities akin to their own, or Basic Wage or National Wage Cases confirmed men’s wages and livelihood standing on different footing from their own. Some channeled anger into union activism, women’s organisations, or both. Pay packet differences propelled a lifetime struggle.

Confronted with injustice rationalised by some of their sisters, taken by male colleagues as their due, unquestioned by employers and condoned by authority, on one level, the insult was laughable. To survive, women developed a fine sense of the ridiculous. Simultaneously, their work deemed worth less lay like an open wound. Women paid as much, often more, for goods and services. Lower wages meant less power, fewer rights and less say.

EqualPay2untitled

equalpay4imagesCA5KW23I

Wage injustice did not mean women classed men working alongside as enemies responsible for pay differentials – although sometimes scoffing at lesser abilities of those paid more. Women ascribed the problem to governments impervious to realities of women’s strengths and abilities, or politicking between powerful groups of men: political parties, politicians, trade unions, employers. They were incensed when, despite wage disparity, their responsibilities were no different. They cast wry amusement when men claimed superior talent and capability. Pay differentials made no difference to women’s dedication or performance. But this weighed them down.

In all trades and professions, women working alongside or over men uncovered deception. Like Graham, Joan Woodbury earned less than her juniors:

‘I had two masters degrees and years and years of experience, had worked in universities and overseas. It didn’t matter.’

Jean Arnot’s salary was pegged below lesser qualified men. When as acting head librarian she was passed over, she gained a consolation prize: a UN Geneva conference of library indexers. Like Graham admired and acclaimed by her employer, Arnot was ‘it’ when the NSW State Library required a woman to publicly shine. Never did adulation bring equal remuneration.

Women built on the ramparts created long before, when women throughout the 19th century and earlier agitated, went on strike, boycotted firms and corporations refusing to employ women in ‘men’s jobs’. The equal pay struggle exists still and has existed for centuries. Despite legislation and industrial pronouncements declaratory of equal pay, women still don’t have it. It will take the strength and power of women standing on the shoulders of those going before us to bring to fruition the long struggle for equal pay and pay equity.

Jocelynne A. Scutt (c) February 2005

equalpay3untitled

The Hon. Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt is Visiting Professor at Buckingham University, UK and Penn State U – The Dickinson Law School, US. This is an extract from her forthcoming book Wage Rage – The Long, Long Struggle for Pay Equity and Equal Pay.

equalapy6imagesCAIOSZH3


 

[1] Quoted in Kay Keasey, ‘Jessie Street – Salute to “A Class Traitor”’, Australian Women’s Weekly, Sydney, NSW, 1970 (5 August 1970)

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,