Equal Pay and Equal Treatment: The Next Frontier

Winning the vote did not end discrimination against women in work and law. After 1945, women campaigned for equal pay, equal access to jobs and fair treatment in marriage and family law. The International Labour Organization adopted an Equal Remuneration Convention in 1951, and the 1957 Treaty of Rome founding the European Economic Community included the principle of equal pay for equal work. In the United States the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned key forms of discrimination.

In Britain, a 1968 strike by women sewing machinists at Ford's Dagenham plant helped prompt the Equal Pay Act of 1970. In 1979 the UN adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, often described as an international bill of rights for women. Debates continue over the causes of pay gaps and the best remedies, but the principle of equal treatment is now widely accepted in law.