Women and the Unions: From Tailoresses to Equal Pay
Title
Description
The role of women in the unions is unique and deserves special attention. In nineteenth-century Australia’s male-dominated society, where women were unable even to vote, workplaces where they would be accepted were few and far between. Yet even in this time, the labour movement and the Victorian Trades Hall were active in championing the rights of female workers. Australia’s first union for women, the Tailoresses’ Association of Melbourne, was founded in 1882 (a full year before Australia’s first female university student graduated from the University of Melbourne), and the great Tailoresses’ strike of 1883 produced changes to working conditions, including attention from a Royal Commission leading to a reformed Factory Act in 1885. But the fight for women’s working rights continued to rage long after the Tailoresses’ union was dissolved into the Tailors’ Society in 1906.[xi] Campaigns for equal pay surfaced between the World Wars, but especially during World War Two, when women took over jobs previously done by men who had left Australia to fight overseas, but were paid lower, “female”, rates (with the approval of the Munitions Union, no less!). The Victorian Trades Hall established a subcommittee for equal pay in 1943, taking up the long-standing cries of female-only unions. Once the war ended, many women wanted to keep their jobs, and keep the pay they had fought for, despite the opposition of their employers, and the unions had to campaign for this issue well into the 1950s.[xii] This collection examines the progression of these events, offering insight into the debates and actions that took place. For more on the fight for fair working conditions, see ‘Living Well: The Fight For Minimum Wage, Living Costs and Fair Working Conditions’ and ‘Eight Hours: The Victorian Trades Hall, Australian Unions And The International Labour Movement.’
Collection Items
22 July 1874: Women Warned Against Unionising As Complaints Over Poor Working Conditions Grow
13 February 1883: Women Unions Hold Public Meeting In Support Of Tailoress Complaints
13 February 1883: Public Meeting Of Women Demands Equal Pay
4 November 1901: Women Warned Not To Accept Work In Sydney After Factory Owners Dismiss Female Unions
6 December 1901: Tailoresses Strike Over 'Long Hours, Arduous Work, Poor Pay'
29 January 1942: Munitions Union Claim Women Replacing Men Should Be Paid 'Female Rates'
11 March 1943: Trades Hall Appoints Subcommittee To Champion Equal Pay For Equal Work
3 June 1948: Trades Hall Council Submits Case For Female Minimum Wage To Arbitration Court
26 August 1948: Arbitration Court Fails To Define Minimum Wage For Women Replacing Men
Secretary Stout stated that, a Commissioner could make a foundational wage where one did not exist…