[page 7]
"Our fight for equality is for better opportunities, better conditions, better pay for women... and for men!"
The Anti-Discrimination Bill was "talked out" of the House of Commons early in February. The Bill aimed to forbid discrimination against women in employment on the grounds of sex where a job is available and the person is qualified for it.
Even if we don't think that laws like this will achieve equality for women in work, we'd support this aim.
BUT the Bill would also end discrimination in favour of women in some circumstances: it tried to establish that women must be employed on "like terms" and in 'like conditions of work" with men. So the existing "protective" clauses in the Factories Acts which restrict nicht shift and 3-shift working by women would have to go. (Even now employers can get the restrictions lifted in some circumstances).
That's not the sort of equality we are interested in. Factories are organised into shift systems so that machinery can be in use for 24 hours each day and maximum profits can be mad made. Shift work damages people's health and disrupts their social life and ability to take part in trade union and political affairs.
We are against a system which puts machinery and profits before people.
Wherever women have gained some protection or advantages compared with male workers-another example would be retirement age-we should demand that these apply to all workers; and not that women should give up these small advantages in order to be "equal".
We demand equal pay and equal work for women, an end to all discrimination against women.
In this struggle we have to be aware that changes in the law which appear to be about greater equality may actually leave women worse off than before.
STOP PRESS: The Bill has now been passed by the House of Lords and so the whole question is to be reopened in the Commons.