Saturday 8th March 2014 is International Women’s Day where we celebrate the social, political and economic achievements of women. This year’s theme is
Inspiring Change
A Brief History of Time (in respect of women)
1842 - Women banned from working underground
1847 - Women limited to 10 hours work in Textile Factories
1865 - Women can become doctors
1870 - Women’s earnings become their own and not their husbands
1874 - Typewriter invented - Led to an increase in female employment
1876 - Telephone invented - Led to an increase in female employment
1880 - First women obtain degrees
1908 - First Female Mayor in UK
1914 - First Female Police Officers
1918 - Women over 30 get the right to vote
1919 - First Female MP
1928 - Women over 21 get right to vote (same age as men)
1929 - First Female Cabinet Minister
1956 - First Female Judge
1958 - First Female Bank Manager
1970 - Equal Pay Act made differences in pay and conditions illegal
1975 - It becomes against the law to sack women for becoming pregnant
1979 - First Female Prime Minister
1984 - Another Equal Pay Act states equal pay for equal work
2013 - Birmingham Council agrees to settle 11000 Equal Pay claims (massive victory but proves gender pay gap has grown)
2014 - Childcare costs rise 30% in 3 years, Workplaces become less flexible, Women still occupy lower grades, Women remain primary care givers for elderly relatives
We have come a long way in the last 200 years but it is obvious there is still a long way to go and we are in danger of losing some of the gains we have made.
Compiled by: Alistair Mitchell
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The following has been supplied by the DWP Group Women's Advisory Committee:
Chris Hart joined the Civil Service 6 April 1970 at Erdington Birmingham as a young single woman working for the then named Ministry of Social Security. She had been unemployed for one week when she attended the Labour Exchange and secured work as a casual Clerical Assistant (CA).
She had to reapply for her job every six weeks as employment laws at the time meant the position would have to become temporary or permanent if employment continued beyond this. In practice, this meant that she had to take one week’s unpaid leave after each six week period.
Chris was a casual for two years before being taken on as a temp. Moving to temporary employment meant she was not required to break her service and she was entitled to one week’s notice if her services were not required. It took a further three years to secure a permanent contract.
Her CA job involved locating case papers, maintaining a BF2 filing system and handwriting giros and operating the ‘bonker’ (a machine used to print order books)! Hours were 8:30AM to 5:00PM with an hour for lunch. Staff was not entitled to morning or afternoon breaks. Furthermore, the team could not leave the office until each customer had left the premises. This could be up to seven pm especially on Fridays and Chris laughingly recalls her father searching for her convinced his young daughter had been waylaid and attacked on her way home.
Recalling the make up of the office at the time, she is reminded of the commonplace grade-ism and having to address the two male EOs and male HEO formally. Women were generally CA and CO grades.
After marrying, Chris became pregnant with her daughter (born August 1975). She was entitled to six weeks maternity leave and a one-off maternity payment of £25 only.
Unfortunately her marriage broke down and she returned to live with her parents. Her mother being a housewife - her father not allowing his wife to work - meant she was able to provide child care when Chris had to return to work on a full time basis. The Department had rigid working hours and patterns and these could not be varied.
Chris received no concessions for being a new mother and was back on her feet all day six weeks after giving birth locating case papers and still having to do overtime.
Giving up work was out of the question as Social Security regulations in place at the time meant you had to provide evidence of being legally separated from your husband to gain benefits – and this was not always a straightforward process. (I personally remember a woman and her children being abandoned by her husband and not being able to get benefits. The only meals the children ate were free schools meals and abject desolation pushed the mother to seriously attempt suicide).
She recalls the Liable Relative procedures where department officials would not only ask the name of the child’s father but a full description would request a photograph probing deeply to ascertain the errant father!
Thirteen years after her first child Chris remarried. She was not forced to resign on getting married as women were made to do as late as 1972 if working for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Her son was born during 1988. This time she got three months maternity leave and pay at £400-£500 per month. An improvement however, she still had to return on a full time basis.
I asked Chris if she recalled whether she received lower pay as the Equal Pay Act 1970 only came into force in 1976, but she was unaware of a pay differential as nearly all CA and CO were women.
It wasn’t until 1988 following a 10 year battle that a tribunal upheld a case bought by Julie Hayward for equal pay.
Chris maintains she was lucky in that she had parental support, as the working hours made it hard to achieve a good work life balance and she expresses with a tinge of sadness and regret the detrimental effect this had on her home life.
She recalls the desperation she felt when child care arrangements broke down: women not given 24 hours to make alternative arrangements. She remembers being made to provide a letter from the hospital after her son’s admission. Chris also tells of the fear of sickness as staff did not get paid for sick leave, receiving basic level Statutory Sickness Pay from day one.
In her 44 years in the department Chris has witnessed great change. She feels the ability to vary working patterns, flexible working hours, better annual leave entitlement, Maternity pay and leave, pregnant and new mothers’ policy amongst the terms and conditions hard won by PCS and its predecessor union and backed by legislation driven by the wider union movement, have enabled women to achieve a better work life balance.
Today we are in a climate that may reverse some of these gains. Women, who still remain primary care givers, are finding it increasing difficult to secure changes in working patterns and work flexibly and the rising cost of good accessible childcare is prohibitive. The Department electing to close workplace nurseries compounds this.
Many women are also finding, as the work forces ages, that they are caring for aging and infirm relatives bringing additional stress and heavily impacting work and home life. The fact that many women still occupy the lower grades, the (real terms) wage cut and rising pension costs have heavily affected our quality of life and we shake our heads incredulously when told we are lucky to have jobs whilst bus drivers in the private sector are facing wage cuts.
We recognise the hard battles feminists have fought but the fight is not over and we will continue the fight for equality.
This fat lady aint singing.
Annette Rochester - DWP Group Equality Officer
