Cheap at Half the Price: The History
of the Fight for Equal Pay in BC
JOSIE BANNERMAN
KATHY CHOPIK
ANN ZURBRIGG

Labour

histories of British Columbia have ignored the
participation of women in the paid labour force until after World War Two
and have created the impression that their earlier role was limited to
suppo:ting the struggles of men. Before women could mobilize around the
issue of equal pay for work of equal value, they first had to establish their right
to be in the paid labour force at all, their right to a wage which would permit
them, at minimum, to support themselves, and their right to both of the above
without regard to their status as daughters, mothers or wives.
In spite of all our apparent progress, many of the problems faced by the
women who worked outside their homes for wages in the factories and
sweatshops which sprang up on the English landscape at the dawn of the
industrial revolution are the same as those encountered by women paid
workers today. "Experience has shown how difficult it is, at a time of chronic
and growing unemployment and underemployment, to ensure women's right
to work on a footing of equality. "1 The right of women to participate in paid
labour, regardless of their personal status or the state of the economy, and the
right to a wage which reflects the work done rather than an attribute of the
worker are still far from certain, in spite of increased unionization and
supportive legislation.
The development of the idea of equal pay for work of equal value with
particular reference to the history of women paid workers in BC from 1900 to
the present is outlined here. The underlying assumption used is that Western
societies have a patriarchal tradition which has established the relationship of
women to all social institutions including the workforce. To posit a
patriarchal society does not mean to imply that men have in the past, or are
now, actively conspiring to keep the reins of power out of the hands of
women, but rather that such a society is one in which men have
Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro, Ed., Not Just Pin Money
Victoria: Camosun College, 1984

298

Equal Pay

institutionalized access to power, while women do not. From this perspective,
an explanation of women's inequality is based on social attitudes and
structures and all women are grouped together vis-a-vis power regardlesss of
individual circumstances or capabilities. This reflects the reality of the
position of women in relation to access to power for all of recorded history.
Grouping women together in this way allows an assessment of events in the
province's history in terms of whether they have furthered the formal access of
women to economic power, which is undoubtedly the goal of the fight for
equal pay.
Other models, particularly those which divide women into sub-groups
bas.ed on the material wealth of male relatives, obscure this central theme
because they imply that women appended to powerful men have power
themselves. All women share the fact of their own relationship to
institutionalized power remaining essentially untouched by the power of the
men around them.
The second subject of this essay is the position of the Trade Union
Movement in BC on the equal pay issue. Unions have played a contradictory
role. On the one hand they have supported equal pay for equal work as a
means of removing women from competition with men, but, at the same time,
they have kept the issue alive by including it in formal statements of principles
and by publicizing the less than living wage which most women paid workers
earned. It is evident that the Trade Union Movement has not yet made its
greatest contribution to the equal pay issue and will not do so until women
achieve positions of influence within their unions.
Women paid workers in British Columbia from 1900-1920 gained wider
acceptance: "The right of the woman worker to earn a living wage under
conditions conducive to good health and morals is receiving growing
recognition in an ever-widening circle of communities.''2 In Canada in 1901,
over sixty percent of all women paid workers were segregated into only three
occupations: servant, dressmaker and teacher. By 1911, the situation in
Vancouver was not much different. Here, forty-two percent of women paid
workers were domestic servants, twenty-three percent were stenographers,
teachers, nurses or other professionals, and a third group, seventeen percent,
were saleswomen or office employees (See Table 1.) In the city of Vancouver,
there were 7,868 women paid workers in 1911, almost a quarter of whom were
immigrants - new arrivals to Canada. 3 Rosenthal points out many of these
women were " .. .imported specifically to be domestic servants by
organizations such as the Salvation Army". 4 An important consequence of
this extreme job segregation was that it effectively barred women from union
membership because it denied them access to the scarce skills which formed
the basis of bargaining power at that time. For this reason, very few of the
women who worked in Vancouver for wages in those early days were
organized. Even when they were initially successful at organizing, their
continued existence was often tenuous because unions were not yet
recognized under the law. In fact, a generous estimate indicates that less than
four and a half percent of them were union members.s
The choice of an occupation was narrowed still further for independent

BANNERMAN

et al

299

women, since not all of the jobs open to them paid a living wage. William
Christianson, manager of the Fifteen Cent Store in Victoria, testified before
the Provincial Royal Commission on Labour that the women who worked in
his store could not live on the wages they earned which were $4.50 to $6.00 per
week. 6 As women were expected either to marry, or to remain in their fathers'
or brothers' households, there appeared to be no reason to consider paying
them a decent wage. A number of unsubstantiated beliefs served to justify the
low wages of women workers. These included the ideas that women were
always taken care of by men, had a lower standard of comfort than men, ate
less, and spent less on the luxuries such as alcohol and tobacco, and that
women worked for pin money or supplementary wages. 7 The existence of
independent women, some of whom supported dependents, was not taken
into account.
Table 1: WOMEN PAID WORKERS, VANCOUVER, 1911
Industry
Domestic Service
Professional
-Stenographers
-Teachers
-Nurses
-Others

# Workers

% of Total

2,720

42%

1,484

23%

1,075

17%

6,452

82% 1

604
357
242
281
1,484

Trade & Merchandising
-Saleswomen
-Office Employees
-Others

548
292
235
1,075

TOTAL

Source:
Calculated from Rosenthal, 1979: 41.
1

100% of women paid workers in Vancouver in 1911= 7,868.

Many women worked as domestics, to keep at least a roof over their
heads. Many others, however, worked as prostitutes on a full or part-time
basis. Alderman Dodd of New Westminster, speaking at Commission
hearings on behalf of the Trades and Labour Council stated that his business
sometimes took him into "the restricted district" of the city. He said:
On several occasions I asked [the women] what caused
them to descend to that life, and almost without

300

Equal Pay

exception, the answer has been that they could not
make enough money in the stores where they were
employed to live respectably. I believe that [this]is the
chief cause of women leading a life of prostitution. 8
This link between low wages and prostitution was later to strike a
responsive chord in a society extremely concerned with the moral purity of its
female members, but incidents such as the Cigar Stands Controversy
demonstrate that moral concerns were often completely insensitive to the
economic and social needs of the women. The Cigar Stands Controversy
began in early February 1914, when a man was convicted in Vancouver Police
Court for showing an "indecent" photograph to a young women employed in
a downtown Cigar Stand. It was ignited by an editorial in The Sun which
pronounced his one year jail sentence as "too severe". 9 A more appropriate
action, the editor suggested would be to ban women from further
employment in cigar stands. Three days later, the Board of Licence
Commissioners for the city passed an order to this effect, and The Sun voiced
its approval by noting that it was" ... contrary to the moral good of the public
that girls should fill these positions. " 10 Women thrown out of work by the
Board's ruling appeared before Commissioners at a special meeting to appeal
the decision. A shocking revelation was that many of them not only worked in
the cigar stands, but also owned them. They created a stir by threatening to
publicly horsewhip the editor unless their jobs and businesses were restored.
Although the Board did not appear anxious to pursue the matter, The Sun
continued its public outcry. 11 By mid-March a compromise had been
hammered out, and cigar stand proprietors were advised that they could
" ... hire only male help should one of the girls voluntarily resign". 12
Women were fighting not only for the right to a living wage and the right
to own a business, but also for the right to work outside the home. When their
lives did not correspond to the approved pattern of husband, home and
family, they had no choice but to challenge an ideal of womanhood which
portrayed them as too frail and vulnerable to participate in the dirty worlds of
paid work and politics, and too difficult to protect when they ventured away
from home.
Women paid workers did not have a collective base from which to
articulate their concerns. At the hearings of the Royal Commission on
Labour, it was trade union men, as well as middle class women's groups, who
decided that a minimum wage law would solve the low wage problems of
women paid workers and who accordingly petitioned for it. In spite of the fact
that the majority of women paid workers at the time received less than the
three dollars per day wage that the Commission considered necessary for
human existence, the recommendation of a minimum wage law for women
was rejected. The commissioners believed that such a law would have " ... a
ruinous effect upon the industrial activities of the province ". 13 They said that,
if the public felt strongly that women and girls were underpaid, they should
boycott offending establishments.
Lobbying continued. The spectre of women turning to lives of
prostitution and crime because they could not live on the wages paid in more
respectable occupations proved far too real for British Columbians to

'( •

T

BANNERMAN et al

301

continue to ignore. The reformist provincial Liberals, elected with the help of
vigorous organizing by women, enacted the first women's minimum wage
legislation only three years later in 1918. Following its passage in the House, a
Vancouver newspaper commented:
The most interesting feature of the measure is the calm
way in which it ignores what was until very recently an
axiom - the right of the employer to run his business as
suited himself.
The principle, if it can be called a principle, is one of
the many things being tossed into the discard by social
advancement. 14
Between 1918, when it was first appointed, and 1923, the Minimum
Wage Board held conferences to establish minimum wages in a variety of
industries within its jurisdiction. The Act defined the minimum wage as one
which should be "adequate to supply the necessary cost of living". It covered
only female employees eighteen years and over, and empowered the Board to
set a lower minimum wage for those who were under eighteen years, for
apprentices, and for women who were "physically defective" or
inexperienced. Many women paid workers were not covered by the Act
because it did not apply to domestic workers, fruit pickers, farm labourers,
bank workers or federal employees. Another flaw was its underlying
assumption in the determination of the minimum wage, that an independent
woman had only herself to support. The Act was far from ideal. Nevertheless,
within its own limited sphere, it raised the wages of most of the women paid
workers it covered, and established in legislation their right to a living wage.
A criticism of the legislation has been that unionization would in the
long term, have been more effective. This criticism assumes that increased
unionization was a realistic option at the time. But, in view of the tiny number
of organized women workers and their marginal position within the labour
movement, the choice of legislation rather than unionization was logical
because the entire social order had to be altered through a change in the
existing balance of power between the sexes. Considered in this way, the
achievement of minimum wage legislation by women, for some among those
who worked for wages outside their homes, was a victory. Its effect reached
beyond the right to a living wage and paved the way for the expansion of the
idea of equal pay for equal work.
The concept of equal pay for equal work has long been recognized within
the Trade Union Movement. In the USA, the first constitution of the Knights
of Labour espoused the principle of equal pay for equal work in 1878. In
Canada, a similar endorsement of the principle came from the Toronto
Trades and Labour Council in 1882, and the Canadian Trades and Labour
Congress in 1915 (See Figure 1).
Within the male-based Trade Union Movement, there was a
fundamental belief that employers would never hire women if they were
compelled to pay them the same wages as men, so certain were they that
women could never deliver "equal work". Rathbone suggested that "equal
pay for equal work" was exploited by trade unionists as an effective way of
excluding women from the paid workforce " ... while appearing as the

302

Equal Pay

champions of equality between the sexes." 15
Unions wanted women out of the paid labour force because they were
taking jobs away from men. Yet the segregation of women into low wage job
ghettos, the original means of maintaining male dominance in a wage
economy, was producing an unforeseen consequence. It created a large
reserve of cheap, efficient labour which capitalists/ employers could not resist
using to increase their profits, or to cut the costs involved in expansion. White
says: "Not only were the employers'profits increased by cheap female labour,
they often depended upon it."16

Figure 1
A PARTIAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE EQUAL PAY CONCEPT

1878
1882

1915
1919
1951
1953
1969

1973

1976-77

1983

Knights of Labour, USA. First Constitution espouses principle of equal
pay for equal work.
Toronto Trades & Labour Council. First platform of principles
includes equal pay for equal work.
Canadian Trades & Labour Congress. Platform of principles amended to
include equal pay for equal work for men and women.
International Labour Organization, Treaty of Peace. Statement of
principles includes equal remuneration for wo1k of equal value.
ILO Convention 100. Statement of principles includes equal remuneration
for work of equal value for men and women.
Equal Pay Act, British Columbia (SBC 1953, c.6). Provides for equal pay
for men and women doing the same work in the same establishment.
Human Rights Act, British Columbia (SBC 1969, c.10). Provides for equal
pay for men and women " ... for the same work or substantially the same
work done in the same establishment."
Human Rights Act, British Columbia (SBC 1973, 2nd. Session, c.199).
Provides that it is discriminatory to maintain different wages between men
and women employed by the same employer for similiar or substantially
similar work.
Canadian Human Rights Act, (SC 1976-77, c.33). Provides that it is
discriminatory to maintain different wages between men and women
in the same establishment who are performing work of equal value.
Bill 27, Human Rights Act, British Columbia. Provides for equal pay for
men and women employed by the same employer for similar or
substantially similar work as did the Act it replaces. However, the power
discretion and independence of the new council to administer the Act and
investigate complaints under the Act is severely reduced. 1

'Negating legislation by giving the administering body inadequate staff is a
common technique in British Columbia. Much of the early legislation affecting
labour (in particular, the Factories Act) was plagued with this deficiency.

•·

BANNERMAN et al

303

In the years between the wars, 1920-1939, "Merely to mention the topic
of married women earning their living in the business world [was] certain to
provoke a lively argument. So many people resent[ed] the right of such
persons to draw salaries." 17 Yet during the 1920s, both private industry and
government in Canada modernized and expanded rapidly. As the right of
young single women to paid employment gained wider acceptance, they left
their fathers' households in increasing numbers to seek jobs and husbands in
the growing urban centres. In 1921, women comprised fifteen and a half
percent of the labour force over the age of ten across the country and, by 1931,
it was seventeen percent. 18 Although the increase seems small, the total
number of women paid workers grew by thirty-six percent during the
Twenties, a greater increase than that of either the preceding decade or the
decade to follow. 19 In the province of British Columbia there were 9,722
women paid workers of all ages in 1921; by 1929 this figure had grown to
20,766 and, by 1939, to 27,489 (See Table 2).
Table 2: WOMEN PAID WORKERS IN ALL INDUSTRIES, 1
BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1921 - 1955
Year

Under 18

18 & Over

Total

1921
1925
1929
1931
1935
1939
1941
1945
1949
1951
1955

1,130
1,718
2,376
1,075
1,199
1,496
2,292
2,471
_2

8,592
12,181
18,390
17,079
18,735
25,993
31,912
56,705

9,722
13,899
20,766
18,154
19,934
27,489
34,204
59,176
61,874
65,069
70,776

Source: Minimum Wage Board/Industrial Relations Board Reports, 1921-1955.
1

These figures do not include domestic workers, fruit pickers, farm labourers,
bank workers or federal employees, many of whom were women.
2After 1946 the breakdown by age was no longer reported.

If, as Ostry suggested, " ... a group which participates more in the early
years of working life, participates more at every subsequent age", 20 the
increased rate of participation of married women in paid labour is accounted
for. This participation grew from under four percent prior to 1941 to over
eleven percent by 1951 and to more than twenty-two percent by 1961. "This is
a far, more dramatic increase than that exhibited by women as a whole. "21
Although the Second World War stimulated women's labour force activity

304

Equal Pay

for a short period, the abeve figures indicate that the two-phase working life
cycle of women had its roots in this earlier period.
Through the Great Depression of the Thirties, the dilemma of married
women paid workers became more than ever a focal point for social conflict.
In the years of high unemployment, they were resented for occupying jobs
unnecessarily, for women were supported by men. This social attitude had
direct consequences; since their wages were considered to be supplementary,
they were often the first workers to be laid off. The right of women to paid
employment without regard to marital status was non-existent. The Report of
the Minimum Wage Board of BC for 1933 observed that "most employers
[were] alive to this oft-times unjust criticism of their policy of employing
married women, and if the matter were probed it would be found that in
almost every case valid reasons exist[ed] for their being on the pay-roll."22
Husbands and sons out of work or earning wages too small to support the
family were cited by the Board as valid reasons for the paid employment of
married women.
·
The issues of paid employment and equal pay were largely ignored by the
Trade Union Movement during tb.e 1920s and 1930s. Because the Trade
Union Movement was comprised almost entirely of male workers, its stand
on issues of concern to women workers was that which best served the issues
of men. Although the number of women paid workers increased substantially
during the period under consideration, the number of unionized women paid
workers did not. The Minimum Wage Board summed up the attitudes which
augured against the organization of women paid workers in the province:
As wage security is the basis of all security for workers,
minimum wage legislation provides women and girls
with this much-to-be-desired factor in their wage
earning lives. As a class they have less experience in
collective bargaining than men, and their mode of life
is customarily unfavourable to co-ordinated
protection. 23
With the number of women union members remaining small, the unions were
largely unaware of and unresponsive to their needs. Hard economic times saw
the unions attacked by antagonistic governments and employers, so they had
little time and fewer resources to devote to a group of workers whom they had
historically ignored. From the late 1930s on, the membership of women paid
workers in unions gradually increased, as unions began organizing along
industrial, rather than craft, lines.
The experience, that many of the women who entered paid employment
in the Twenties had, was important. Its importance derived from the fact that
these women were the first to experience economic independence in the
climate of personal equality which prevailed in the years immediately
following the winning of the right to vote. This heightened sense of personal
equality, which resulted from political enfranchisement and economic
independence shaped a generation's ideas about the place of women and led
them back into paid employment as soon as their duties to their families were
discharged. Single women and older married women's participation in paid
labour did not threaten the patriarchal social order since family

't:

I

•

BANNERMAN et al

305

responsibilities were not being interrupted. "The rationale for women's
peculiar position in society has always been that their function as mothers is
essential to the survival of the group and that the home is the essential nucleus
of society as we know it. ''2 4 Neither single women nor older married women
were central to such a belief.
Women were accepted in the labour force in World War Two because
"the attitude of government and the general public ... was that women had
worked during the war because it was their patriotic duty, not because they
had a right to work. Certainly not a right to the better wages of men's
occupations. ''2 5 The war years are often seen as a time of great change for
women's participation in paid employment. Yet, despite an increase in their
participation rate, particularly among those who were married, attitudes
about women paid workers did not alter significantly during this wartime
period.
Women were encouraged to enter the work force through an intense
publicity campaign by the government which sought to convince them that it
was their patriotic duty to take jobs outside their homes in order to help the
war effort. The campaign notwithstanding, the real motivation for women
workers did not correspond to the official emphasis on patriotism. Many
women indicated that they were working out of a desire to supplement family
income or from economic necessity. In one survey of married women, only
nine percent of them reported that they were motivated to work by patriotic
considerations. 26
The mobilization and recruitment of women conducted by the National
Selective Service (NSS) and the Federal Department of Labour reflected a
view of women as a large labour reserve " ... to be dipped into more and more
deeply as the labour pool dried up". 27 After the NSS was established in 1942,
it first held a compulsory registration of females aged twenty to twenty-four,
the main aim being to determine the number of single women available for
work in order to ensure that women with children did not seek employment
and could meet their family responsibilities. It is clear that officials still felt
that a woman's place was in the home. The next phase ofrecruitment called
upon childless married women to enter the full-time labour force. It was
found that many women originally employed in lower paying service jobs
were leaving them for higher paying employment in the war industries,
necessitating the recruitment of previously unemployed females. By mid1943, the NSS found that the labour pool of single women and childless
married women had been exhausted and the traditionally lower paying
sectors of the economy were crying out for help. It was only at this point that
the NSS launched a campaign to recruit family women and, then, primarily
for part-time employment.
This massive government intervention into the labour market in pursuit
of wartime goals was accompanied by specific measures designed to
encourage women to enter the workforce. These concessions were granted,
however, only within the context of the war effort and were to remain in effect
only for the duration of the war. The two most important measures were the
estaolishment of government-supported child care facilities (in Ontario and

306

Equal Pay

Quebec only), and an amendment to the Income War Tax Act in 1942
allowing a working woman's husband to claim the full married status
exemption regardless of how much money his wife might earn. Both these
incentives were withdrawn after the war to restrict married women's
continued participation in the labour force.
As had happened during the First World War, the issue of equal pay for
equal work surfaced as women began entering previously exclusive male
occupations. Therefore, in 1941 the National War Labour Board was
established and one of its responsibilities was the administration of the
Orders-in-Council affecting wages and salaries. 28 The Wartime Wages
Control Order of 194 l provided for continuation of the same basic wage rates
as those in effect on November 1 1941, and wages were to be determined on
the basis of the job performed :rather than on the sex of the individual worker.
However, subsequent revisions to this particular order allowed for the
establishment of new and lower paid occupational classifications for
unskilled beginners, i.e. the newly hired women, Wartime regulations
regarding equal pay were, unfortunately, not reinforced following the war by
appropriate legislation.
As the end of the war approached, hostility towards female workers reemerged. Fears were expressed within the trade unions that returning
servicemen would not be able to reclaim their jobs. It became evident that
women, (especially those who were married), had not yet established their
right to work let alone a right to equal pay for equal work. As early as 1943,
one delegate to the Trades & Labour Congress Convention stated that
".,.women have no business in industry, except in wartime. After the war
women are going to be in competition with their fathers, sons and future
husbands. ''29 Women's war effort laid the basis for a more general acceptance
of equal pay for equal work; nevertheless, the predominant view was that
women should give way to the returning servicemen.
Such attitudes were not, however, shared by an increasing number of
women whose real-life job experiences had led them to question their
acceptance of beliefs about women and work. Because they had experienced
new levels of personal and economic potential many were not willing to return
to their pre-war activities. This growing reluctance to leave the workforce is
reflected in the appearance of articles in popular publications, such as
Maclean's. 30 They suggested that women deserved a fair share of the jobs,
discussed women's fears that men would get preference after the war and
argued the lack of any economic justification for such a policy. One survey31
found that women were divided about equally on whether or not they would
want to keep working after the war ended, even if they married.
Another indication of the erosion of the traditional patriarchal ideology
can be seen in the positions articulated by the National Council of
W omen(NCW). The Council had played an integral part in the running of the
NSS and in the mobilization of women. They believed that women would
prove their capabilities through action, if they were given the opportunity.
They had espoused "equal pay for work of equal value in quantity and
quality" for women since 1920,32 and folt that equal pay for women would

..
•·

BANNERMAN et al

307

quickly follow if equal work were performed. As the war progressed, they
became increasingly vocal in their support for equal pay for work of equal
value for women in the armed forces and in industry. They campaigned for
equal representation for women on post-war government committees.
The significance of the attitude articulated by the NCW is that it echoes
not only the desire, but also the determination many women felt to gain
control over their lives. The 1943 presidential address to the National Council
of Women said: "We hear often, generally from men, the remark 'after the war
women will go back to the kitchen'. Probably the reason for our aroused
indignation is that we are in effect being told what we are to do, before we
have been given the chance to express what we intend to do. "33
Although the seeds of discontent had been planted during World War
Two, immediate post-war developments, such as the measures adopted
within the federal civil service, reflected the still widely-held view that a
woman's place was in the home. For example,job advertisements were posted
which included the statement that "preference will be given to a qualified male
applicant!" 34 The position of married women was especially precarious. The
restriction that those who worked for the civil service were obliged to resign
unless they were self-supporting, originally imposed in 1921, was lifted during
World War Two, but it was reinstated near the war's close in 1944. Between
5,000 and 7,000 women were laid off. 35 The outcome of all these reversals in
policy was that by 1946 women made up only 22. 7% of the labour force, down
from 31.4% in 1945. 36 In summary, the official policy reflected a widespread
assumption " ... that women are a reserve army which can be called up when
the supply of men is short and which will retreat without question when they
are no longer needed".37
At the close of World War Two women had not yet established their right
to work regardless of their economic situation or personal status. The right to
equal pay for equal work had been established only within a very narrow
scope, and support for even its limited application dwindled in the post-war
period. However, there was a growing conviction among women that their
capacity to perform equal work, given the opportunity, entitled them to an
equitable wage, providing the foundation for the movement for equal pay for
work of equal value.
" ... [F]or Canadian women wage earners seeking pay equity, the theme of
their story· is 'Waiting for Godot'." 38 In the years immediately following
World War Two, equal pay continued to elude women workers. The NCW
Annual Report for 1947 reflected its disillusionment that no progress on this
issue was forthcoming. "The male world," it said, "shows a marked solidarity
against women's attempts to enter a domain where men at present enjoy a
monopoly position. "39
After the war and through the early l 950s, union membership in Canada,
and particularly in British Columbia, grew steadily. In British Columbia, in
1956 and 1957 alone, union membership increased by 20.9%. Just over fiftyfive percent of the total number of paid workers in the province were members
of unions at the close of 1957, an all time high. 40
The quest for equal pay received formal recognition in 1951 when the

308

Equal Pay

International Labour Organization adopted the Equal Remuneration
Convention (No. 100). More than thirty years later, Convention 100 is still a
landmark in the equal pay struggle. It reads as follows:
This Convention promotes the application of the
principle of equal remuneration regardless of sex for
work of equal value. In order to devise the means for
assessing·· the value of work, it is proposed that
measures be taken to promote the appraisal of jobs on
the basis of work to be performed. The principle of
equal pay for work of equal value may be applied
either by national laws, legally established or
recognized machinery for fixing wages, collective
agreements, or by a combination of these methods. 41
Canada did not ratify this convention until November 16, 1972 (See Figure 1).
Convention 100 is a major milestone in the equal pay struggle because it has
raised many questions about the nature and determination of value. It
advocated the appraisal of jobs on the basis of work performed as the measure
of value. This assumed that such a measure of value can be objectively applied
to any job.
A more complex dimension of 'equal value' has emerged following the
development and application of specific job evaluation tools. The meaning of
value has historically been related to the market value of an individual's
labour, and the determination of a 'fair' wage has been predicated on interoccupational comparisons. The utility of the 'skill, effort and responsibility'
model is that it theoretically permitted cross-occupational comparisons like
the comparison of duties of 'inside' clerical workers with those of 'outside'
maintenance workers.
Critiques of existing job evaluation systems suggest that both the items
selected for evaluation and the rating attached to them reflect the same biases
they were intended to eradicate. This means that job duties performed mainly
by women would be undervalued by a system which is considered by its users
to be objective. 42 This new dimension is fundamentally radical because it has
the potential to alter the understanding of the meaning and value of an
individual's labour.
Now, unions are beginning to play a major role in the struggle for equal
pay. The 1960s saw the rapid unionization of public sector employees, many
of whom were women. As of January 1, 1982, there were an estimated 457,000
women paid workers in the British Columbia labour force, 34.9% of whom
were union members. 43 On a nationwide basis, at least half of all women paid
workers are single, divorced, widowed or the sole supporter of their families.
Many of these female-led families live below the poverty line because the
wages of women workers are substantially lower than those of men. In 1981,
full-time female paid workers on the average earned sixty percent of what
their male counterparts earned (See Table 3).
Equalization of base wage rates as a first step toward equal pay for work
of equal value represents a new approach by trade unions in BC to this issue.
During 1981 'equal base rates' was a successful strike issue for the Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Vancouver Municipal &

.

BANNERMAN et al

309

Regional Employees Union (VMREU) in several areas of the province.
Major breakthroughs on equal base rates were achieved by Steelworkers at
Cominco in Trail and Office & Technical Employees Union (OTEU)
members at BC Hydro during the same year. 44
Table 3: COMPARISON OF AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES OF WOMEN
& MEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA FROM 1918-1955

Year

Women 1

Men 2

1918
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955

$13.88
17.36
17.38
17.37
14.96
15.55
20.24
28.98
38.04

27.97
31.51
27.82
28.64
24.09
28.11
38.50
51.88
70.47

Women's Wages
As a Percent
of Men's

49.62%
55.09

62.47
60.65 ·
62.10
55.32
52.57
55.86
53.98

I

Average weekly earnings of women over· 18 were collected from Reports of the
Minimum Wage Board of BC for the appropriate years. Excluded are the wages of
domestic workers, farm labourers, fruit pickers, bank workers and federal
employees.
2
Average weekly earnings of male industrial workers from 1918 to 1947 are found in
the Annual Report of the Department of Labour (BC) for 1947, p.12. Remaining
figures were collected from the Department's Annual Reports for the appropriate
years.

A sociological model of patriarchy or gender-based stratification is a
useful way of viewing the historical development of a politically active
women's labour movement. Perhaps this will aid in the development of a
specifically women's history by focusing on women's struggles against
capitalism, patriarchy, and the intersection of the two, within women's own
experience.
While this is not an alternative to a class analysis, specific gender
oppression is articulated by an overlying class grid, and there remains an
historical reality which is specifically female. 45 Lerner says: "The ongoing and
continuing contribution of women to the development of human culture
cannot be found by treating them only as victims of oppression. "46
In rediscovering women's history, the struggles and actions of women are
the central focus. If, as Rowbotham says, feminism is by definition the
experience of one sex, 47 so then must feminist history represent the historical
truth ot women's struggle against their oppression, both capitalist and

310

Equal Pay

patriarchal. Women's involvement in the workforce is an ongoing struggle for
equality. That struggle, of course, has taken various forms at different times
before it evolved into the contemporary issue of equal value. The right even to
have employment, and the struggles for a wage which did not enforce a
heterosexual/ patriarchal dependence, are not all in the past but they were
and are the necessary prior conditions for an equal and equitable wage for
women today.

..

•

BANNERMAN et al

311

Footnotes
l. Shirley Carr, "Women's Year - Union Role" Canadian Labour, Vol. 20, no. 2
(1975): 6 & 34.
2. Annual Report of the British Columbia Department of Labour (1921): 57.
3. Star Rosenthal, "Union Maids: Organized Women Workers in Vancouver 19001915" BC Studies, no. 41, (1979): 40.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.: 41-45. This figure was calculated from Rosenthal's discussion.
6. Proceedings of the British Columbia Royal Commission on Labour, 1912-1914:
427-441, Public Archives of British Columbia (hereafter PABC).
7. Eleanor F. Rathbone, "The Remuneration of Women's Services" The Economic
Journal, Vol. 27 (1917): 60.
8. Proceedings, op. cit.: 201.
9. The Vancouver Sun, February 9, 1914: 6.
10. Ibid., February 12, 1914: 4.
ll. Ibid., February 19, 1914: 4 & February 24, 1914: 6.
12. Ibid., March 12, 1914: 4.
13. Report of the British Columbia Royal Commission on Labour (Victoria: King's
Printer, 1915): 7.
14. Daily News Advertiser, March 29, 1918: 15.
15. Rathbone, op. cit.: 58.
16. Julie White, Women & Unions, Prepared for the Canadian Advisory Council on
the Status of Women (Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre, Supply &
Services Canada, 1980): 11.
17. Report of the Minimum Wage Board of British Columbia for 1933, In the
Annual Report of the British Columbia Ministry of Labour (Victoria, 1933): 85.
18. Mary Vipond, "The Image of Women in Mass Circulation Magazines in the
1920s", In Susan M. Trofimenkoff & Alison Prentice, eds., The Neglected Majority:
Essays In Canadian Womens History (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977): 117.
19. Ibid.: 117.
20. Sylvia Ostry, The Female Worker: Labour Force & Occupational Trends
(Ottawa: Department of Labour, Women's Bureau, 1966): 12.
21. Ibid.: 6.
22. Reports, op. cit.
23. Ibid., 1932: 61.
24. Gerda Lerner, "New Approaches To The Study Of Women In American History",
In Bernice A. Carroll, ed., Liberating Women's History (Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 1976): 351.
25. Janet Ray, Towards Womens Rights (Toronto: Grolier Limited, 1981): 75.
26. Ruth Pierson, "Women's Emancipation & The Recruitment of Women Into The
Labour Force In World War II", In Susan M. Trofimenkoff & Alison Prentice, eds.,
The Neglected Majority: Essays In Canadian Women's History (Toronto: McClelland
& Stewart, 1977): 134-135.
27. Ibid.: 125.
28. Equal Pay for Equal Work (Ottawa: Department of Labour, 1959): 6-7.
29. Report of the Proce~dings of the Annual Convention of the Trades & Labour
Congress of Canada (1943): 201.
30. For example see Janet Tupper, "Little Woman - What Now?" Maclean's, Vol.
57, no. 21 (1944): 20 & 32-33, and Katherine Kent,"Dames At Desks" Macleans, Vol.
58. no. 2 (1945): 10.

312 Equal Pay

31. Ibid., Tupper: 26.
32. Ramsay Cook & Wendy Mitchinson, eds., Proper Sphere: Women's Place in
Canadian Society (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1976): 35.
33. Annual Report of the National Council of Women (1943): 41, PABC.
34. Kent, op. cit.
35. Janet Smith, "Equal Opportunity in the Public Service" Canadian Labour, Vol.
20, no. 2 (1975): 13-15.
36. Ray, op. cit.: 75.
37. Alice H. Cook, "Vocational Training, The Labour Market & The Unions" In
Ronnie S. Ratner, ed., Equal Employment Policy For Women: Strategies For
Implementation in the US, Canada & Western Europe (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1980): 200.
38. Women In The Labour Force, 1978-1979, Part IL· Earnings of Women & Men
(Ottawa: Supply & Services Canada): i.
39. Annual Report of the National Council of Women (1947): 111, PABC.
40. British Columbia Labour Directory (Victoria: Ministry of Labour, 1982): 10.
41. Canadian Women & Job Related Laws, 1981 (Ottawa: Supply & Services
Canada, 1982): 46.
42. Dorothy Smith, "Institutional Ethnography: A Feminist Method" To appear in
Alison Griffith & Paul Olson, eds., Outside The Discourse: Women's Experience In
Education (Toronto: Routledge & Kegan Paul, forthcoming).
43. British Columbia Labour Directory, op. cit.: 9.
44. Equal Pay Information Committee, "Will Wage Controls Bury Equal Pay?" A
Brief Presented to the BC Federation of Labour in Val)couver on May 20, 1982.
45. Dorothy Smith, "Women & Class", Paper Presented Before The Learned
Society Meetings, CSAA, Vancouver, June 1983.
46. Gerda Lerner, "Placing Women In History: A 1975 Perspective", In Bernice A.
Carroll, ed., Liberating Women's History (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1976):
358.
47. Sheila Rowbotham & Others, Beyond The Fragments (London: Merlin Press,
1976): 58.
Bibliography
British Columbia. Department of Labour. Annual Reports. Victoria: 1917- .
British Columbia. Royal Commission on Labour 1912-1914. Proceedings. Provincial
Archives of British Columbia. (PABC).
British Columbia. Royal Commission on Labour 1912-1914. Report. Victoria:
King's Printer, 1915.
British Columbia Labour Directory. Victoria: Ministry of Labour, 1982.
Canada. Department of Labour. Equal Pay For Equal Work. Ottawa: 1959.
Canada. Labour Canada. Women's Bureau. Women in the Labour Force 1978-1979,
Part IL· Earnings of Women & Men. Ottawa: Supply & Services Canada, 1981.
Carr, Shirley. "Women's Year-Union Role", Canadian Labour, Vol. 20, no. 2, 1975.
Carroll, Bernice A., ed. Liberating Women's History. Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1976.
Daily News Advertiser, March 29, 1918.
Equal Pay Information Committee. "Will Wage Controls Bury Equal Pay?"
A Brief Presented to the BC Federation of Labour in Vancouver on
May 20, 1982.
Griffith, Alison & Paul Olson, eds. Outside The Discourse: Women's Experience In
Education. Toronto: Routledge & Kegan Paul, forthcoming.

' ,..

..

BANNERMAN et al

313

Kent, Katharine. "Dames At Desks", Maclean's, Vol. 58, no. 2, 1945.
National Council of Women. Annual Reports. 1943-1947. PABC.
Ostry, Sylvia. The Female Worker: Labour Force & Occupational Trends. Ottawa:
Department of Labour, Women's Bureau, 1966.
Rathbone, Eleanor F. "The Remuneration Of Women's Services", The Economic
Journal, Vol. 27, 1917.
Ratner, Ronnie S., ed. Equal Employment Policy For Women: Strategies For
Implementation In The US, Canada & Western Europe. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1980.
Ray, Janet. Towards Women's Rights. Toronto: Grolier Ltd., 1981.
Rosenthal, Star. "Union Maids: Organized Women Workers In Vancouver
1900-1915", BC Studies, No. 41, Spring, 1979.
Smith, Janet. "Equal Opportunity In The Public Service", Canadian Labour, Vol. 20,
no. 2, 1975.
·
Trades & Labour Congress of Canada. Report of the Proceedings of the Annual
Convention. 1885-1955.
Trofimenkoff, Susan & Alison Prentice, eds. The Neglected Majority: Essays in
Canadian Women's History. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977.
Tupper, Janet. "Little Woman - What Now?", Maclean's, Vol. 57, no. 21,
November, 1944.
Vancouver Sun, February 9, 12, 19 & 24; March 12, 1914.
White, Julie. Women & Unions. Prepared For The Canadian Advisory Council On
The Status Of Women. Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre,
Supply & Services Canada, 1980.