The Equal Pay Campaign Committee: A Case-Study of a Pressure Group

AuthorAllen Potter
Published date01 February 1957
Date01 February 1957
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1957.tb00859.x
Subject MatterArticle
THE EQUAL PAY CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE:
A
CASE-STUDY
OF
A PRESSURE GROUP
ALLEN
POTTER
Victoria University
of
Manchester
THE
Equal Pay Campaign Committee was formed in 1944 to obtain equal
pay for women in the public services and was dissolved in 1956, after it had
become Government policy to introduce equal pay by stages. The fight
for
equality in the public services started long before 1944 and is not yet entirely
over; and it is only part
of
the larger struggle for equal pay and equal treat-
ment
of
the sexes in employment generally. But the story of the Equal Pay
Campaign Committee makes a convenient chapter
in
the history of the
struggle. It has a definite beginning and end; the Committee concerned
itself only with public employment; and the Committee was simply a
pressure group (that is, it was not a trade union or women's society or any-
thing else). Here is an account of the E.P.C.C. and its methods.'
I
The Equal Pay Campaign Committee was a thoroughly British organiza-
tion: a co-ordinating committee
of
representatives of committees in touch
withother
co-ordinatingcommittees.
It was the successor to a group that had
persuaded the Government in 1943 to give equal compensation to civilian
men and women for war injuries.' Mrs. Mavis Tate, a Conservative Member
of
Parliament from 1931 to 1945, who had led the agitation for equal com-
pensation and had been a member of the Select Committee on Equal
Compensation
of
1942-3, was the Chairman
of
the E.P.C.C. from its
for-
mation in January 1944 until her death in June 1947. Mrs. Thelma Cazalet-
Keir, Conservative Member for East Islington from 1931 to 1945, who
had been on the Select Committee, was the Chairman of the E.P.C.C.
from 1947 until its dissolution. The other members of the Committee
*
The chief sources
of
information
for
this article are the minute books
of
the
Committee
and its sub-committees. Since the records
of
meetings are arranged chronologically in the
books without pagination, particular passages are cited by dates.
The
books and
a
collection
of
pamphlets and press cuttings were lent
by
the Librarian
of
the Women's Service Litrary
of
the Fawcett Society,
27
Wilfred Street, Westminster, S.W.
1.
*
See The National Association
of
Women Civil Servants,
Newsletrer,
1
Feb. 1944, p.
1,
and
388
H.C.
Deb.
5s.
(7
Apr. 1943),
624-6.
Political
Studies,
Vol.
V,
No.
1
(1957,
49-64).
E
5540.5.1
50
THE
IQUAI.
PAY
CAMPAIGN
COMMITTrT:
during its
first
three years were representatives of women’s organizations
or ‘individual representatives’ closely connected with them.
The
Com-
mittee was associated with an Advisory Council of women’s and ‘mixed’
organizations.
The E.P.C.C. did not meet between March 1945 and November 1946
while waiting for the report of the Royal Commission on Equal Pay of
1944-6, to which most
of
its member organizations presented evidence.
Since the report did not induce the Government to introduce equal pay,’
the Committee decided on
3
March 1947, ‘in view of the probable need for
a nation-wide campaign for equal pay’, to enlarge itself to include represen-
tatives of organizations that had previously been members of the Advisory
Council only. The Advisory Council was in turn enlarged to include the
women’s sections of political parties that agreed to affiliate with it. In
November
1947
the Committee invited representatives of
a
few more
women’s organizations to join it, when the Status of Women Committee,
with which the E.P.C.C. had been co-operating closely, asked the E.P.C.C.
to take over its work on equal pay. Further invitations were issued indivi-
dually
from
time to time.
The following organizations were, at one time or another, represented
on the E.P.C.C. (those still represented when the Committee was dissolved
are italicized):
Association
of
Assistant Mistresses in Secondary Schools;
British Federation
of
Business and Professional Women; British Federation
uf
University Women;
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy;
Council
of
Women Civil Servants; Fawcett Society; Federation
of
Soroptomist Clubs;
Guild of Insurance Oficials; London County Council Staf Association;
National Association of Local Government Officers;
National Association
of
Women Civil Servants; National Council
of
Women; National Federa-
tion
of
Business and Professional Women’s
Clubs;
National Federation of
Women’s Institutes; National Union of Bank Employees;
National Union
of Teachers;
National Union
of
Women Teachers; National Women
Citizens’ Association; Open Door Council; Royal College
of
Nursing;
St.
Joan’s Social and Political Alliance;
Six
Point Group; Suflragette Fellow-
ship;
Women for Westminster; Women Public Health Officers’ Association;
Women’s Engineering Society; Women’s Freedom League;
Women’s Guild
of
Empire; and Women’s Group
on
Public Welfare.2 The L.C.C. Staff
Although without authority
to
submit recommendations, the Royal Commission seemed
to
favour the introduction of equal pay in the public services
(Reporr:
Cmd.
6937,
Oct.
1946).
Some
of
the organizations once represented on the Committee were members
of
the
Advisory Council at the time
of
dissolution.
For
3
list
of
the
47
members of the Committee
and Advisory Council in
1954,
under the headings ‘Professional Associations and Trade
Unions’, ‘Feminist and “Women’s Interests”’. and ‘Political’, see United Nations Economic
and Social Council, Commission on the Status
of
Women, ‘Methods Used in Campaigns
for
Equal Pay for Equal
Work’
(Report by the Secretary-General,
24
Jan.
1955).
p.
17.
There
was a separate Scottish
E.P.C.C.

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