The position of women has been seriously neglected by all sections of the left. Their situation may be illustrated by figures drawn from the Ministry of Labour Gazette. The average wages of male and female full-time workers in the manufacturirg industries are quoted in the March 1966 issue as follcws:
Female ~ . Male Monthly paid £56. Oc 36 £129. 6. 6. Pay per week therefore £12.18, 6, £29. 16, ll, Weekly paid £9.17. 7. £19. 9. 1.
These disgraceful figures do not even tell the full story, during the past six or seven years, when women might have been expected to benefit from the relatively high employment throughout the country. Their position has in fact deteriorated in relation to male workers, The following index figures represent the average weekly earnings of full-time manual workers over all manufacturing industries, based on Index April 1960 = 100.
Women Men April 1966 135724 141.5
A similar trend can be seen in the index figures for salaried employees in nationalised industries, based on Index 1959 = 100,
Women Men 1965 144.0 15363
The very low wages of women are dependent upon two factors: 1) The wage differential, e.g. policewomen receive 90% of the salary
given to policemen, 2) The prejudice against accepting women into certain grades of work. This makes it very difficult for women to enter skilled jobs. The Central Youth Employment: Executive gives the following statistics for girl schoolleavers: only 6% go into apprenticeships (the majority of these being in hairdressing), 13% into jobs which include some sort of training, and 40% go into clerical employment, Hence the majority of female workers find themselves in service industries. In the present situation women can hardly hope to live independent lives, since society, by paying them through their fathers and husb2nds, denies them a sound economic base, Indeed, women are the most exp cited section of the population at the moment, since under the capitalist system they are made dependent both on their employer and on the males of their own class. That the attitude towards employment of women is socially conditioned cannot be doubted. During the war they were forced to enter many fields of work which were traditionally reserved for men, and I think it is generally
over /
Women's Pay _/contimued
admitted that they acquitted themselves very well, However, after the
war they were persuaded to make way for the returning heroes, and the
government provision of nurseries, canteens, etce., which had facilitated
their exit from the restrictive home environment, were brought to a close,
Women cannot. become fully socially and socialistically conscious unless
they are integrated on an equal basis with other workers and are intimat-
ely involved in the day-to-day struggles of their class,