An appeal for equal pay for equal work in the Civil Service, without regard to sex, was made at a crowded meeting of women in Caxton Hall, Westminster, last night and at an overflow meeting at St. Ermins's nearby, organized by the London and National Society for Women's Service for the Joint Committee on Women in the Civil Service. Twenty-five organizations took part, representing opinion in many parts of the United Kingdom. The chairman, Professor Winifred Cullis, announced receipt of apologies for absence from 19 male Civil servants.
The meeting resolved to call upon the Government to establish one salary scale in each grade of the Civil Service which shall apply equally to all in it without regard to their sex; further, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer be asked to receive a deputation to bring the resolution before him. It was stated that the matter would be raised in the House of Commons just before Easter.
Moving the resolution, Colonel D. Clifton Brown, MP, complimented women on their patriotic patience in allowing their claims to lie dormant in the whole period of acute financial stringency. It was not the sex struggle of a few man-hating spinsters seeking to wreak vengeance on men, but a genuine movement pursued in the belief that the principle of equal pay was in the best interests of the country as a whole.
Miss Ellen Wilkinson, MP, seconding, said the principle of equal pay had been accepted for higher grades under the London County Council and by a number of local authorities for all grades. Many women had dependants to support in common with men, and equal pay for women would not bring worse conditions for men in employment.
THE STATE AS EMPLOYER
Lady Astor. MP, contended that the State as an employer was setting a bad example to employers in industry, where the payment of lower rates to women resulted in increasing unemployment among men. Part 13 of the Treaty of Versailles said it was of special and urgent importance that men and women should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value. Great Britain put her name to that clause, and the principle of equal pay was adopted in the House of Commons nearly 16 years ago. Since then in spite of repeated promises, nothing had been done.
Major J.W. Hills. MP, said that although parliament's resolution for equal pay in the Civil Service was confirmed the year after its adoption, action was postponed on the ground of the then financial stress, and reconsideration within three years was directed. Not merely had nothing been done; women were formerly paid equally with men in the National Physical Laboratory, but since 1933 women's pay was drastically reduced. There were many cases in the Civil Service where women in senior positions were superintending the work of men paid more than themselves.
