Towards Equal Opportunities? Women in Britain since 1945

Abstract

IN the period between the end of the Second World War and the implementation of equal pay and equal opportunities legislation in the 1980s, the issue of equal pay for women with men and the, associated, wider questions of equal opportunities never wholly disappeared from public discussion, although they were certainly more prominent at certain times than at others. Discussion of these issues unavoidably touched upon, and for the historian provided evidence about, some of the main themes in women's lives. First of all, there was the relationship between domestic life and work in the paid labour market, experiences at home and in the paid workplace, and the processes of socialisation which shaped them. Second, there were the attitudes of women towards these experiences, attitudes which have varied over time, and which have sometimes been expressed in terms of a conscious feminism. Finally, there were the attitudes of men towards women, which were particularly important when the men con­ cerned exercised influence over women, for example as husbands or employers. Hence the issue of equal pay provides a framework within which important themes in the changing and varied histories of British women over almost half a century can be discussed with some attempt at coherence. In March l 944 the House of Commons voted narrowly for an amendment to the great Education Bill, to grant equal pay to schoolteachers. It was initiated by the Tory Reform Group and introduced by the Conservative MP Thelma Cazalet Keir. It 183 184 BRITAIN SINCE 1945 followed pressure from the beginning of the century for equal pay in the public sector, which had taken on new vigour during the war. Cazalet Keir was supported by men of all parties and no member opposed the principle of equal pay. The amendment passed by 117 to 116 votes. On the following day the Prime Minister insisted that the House must delete the amendment. He demanded that this should be treated as a vote of confidence in the government and he threatened to call an election if it were lost. To the plea of Labour MP Emanuel Shinwell that equal pay for teachers posed little obvious threat to the war effort and that the House, which manifestly wholly supported the war, had amended other government measures without giving evident comfort to the enemy, Churchill responded: It is really impossible to distinguish between votes on domestic policy and votes on the general policy of the war, in this country [HON. MEMBERS: 'Nonsense']