Traditionally, the practice and protection of human rights has not been gender neutral, with some issues, reflecting masculine, class and cultural biases, prioritised before others.1 As an advocate for better working conditions for women, Eileen Powell (1913-97) was a pioneer in many respects. Representing railway refreshment room workers in 1938, she was the first woman to present a case before the NSW State Arbitration Court. From 1944 to 1951 Powell presented a unique two-hour women’s program on the Labor Party owned radio station 2KY, when very few women were announcers, and talk back sessions were almost unheard of. Powell’s industrial relations expertise was acknowledged when she was selected to represent Australia on the International Labour Organisation’s Correspondence Committee on Women’s Work in 1948, a role she held for 12 years. In 1949, she was the first person appointed as an Australian government adviser to attend a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and 20 years later, represented the Australian League of Women Voters before the Commonwealth Arbitration Court’s hearing of the claim for equal pay. This paper demonstrates that responses to resolutions and legislation drafted at domestic and international forums during the 1940s and early 1950s provides an insight into the ways in which equal pay activism is subject to re-interpretation and adaptation by individuals and groups with different interests and priorities.

Powell stresses that the development of her political and feminist consciousness can be traced back to attending meetings as a young child with her mother, Mrs Margaret Powell. Born in the inner west working-class suburb of Petersham, Sydney, on 3 August 1913, Eileen Powell was the second oldest of four children, three sisters and a brother, with another child, the first, stillborn. Able to ‘spread her wings’ after divorce and attempting to cope with the unexpected death of her oldest daughter at the age of 16, Powell’s mother began attending debating clubs and meetings of historical genealogical and feminist societies, advertised in the local newspaper, often taking her young daughters. Leading feminists Jessie Street, later Australian delegate to the founding conference of the UN, and Linda Littlejohn, also an international campaigner for equal rights, attended some of these meetings, planting the seed for Powell’s future activism.2

The feminist perspective, emphasising women’s unique perspective and values developed as a result of responsibility for the household and care of others, stressed the need for a new type of nation state, which would actively promote the welfare of all citizens.3 For instance, formed in 1921, the non-party and non-sectarian Australian Federation of Women Voters immediately affiliated with the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. The Federation’s platform and objectives included ‘to take steps towards the establishment of equal rights of citizenship for both men and women’, and ‘to educate women on moral, social and economic questions’.4 Powell was the Assistant Secretary for the organisation between 1945 and 1948, and continued to serve on various standing committees for another 20 years or so. In 1947 she was praised for preparing an ‘excellent’ survey entitled ‘The Legal Status and Treatment of Women under Public Law in Australia’ which was ‘subsequently commended’ by both the International Alliance of Women and the UN. In 1951 Powell represented a report to the Perth conference on Equal Economic Rights, and in 1963 was referred to as one of a special group of women who had drafted comprehensive reports that were eventually submitted to the UN.5

As a consequence of the lower wages, status and authority generally assigned to those occupations designated as women’s work, female-headed households were more vulnerable to a downturn in the economy. Labour historiography has traditionally emphasised the importance of the Harvester or ‘family wage’ judgement of 1907, as the consecration of beliefs and attitudes towards male and female employment in Australia. Established by a Federal Act in 1904, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, hereafter the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, stressed the desirability for a basic, minimum or living wage, enough to support the ‘domestic needs’ of an unskilled male, his wife, and three children.6

From 1919 until World War II, work generally performed by women in Australia was valued at approximately 54 per cent of the adult male basic wage, with an added margin for skill. In 1928, statistics forwarded to the ILO from awards, determinations and collective agreements under Commonwealth and State Acts, referred to the prescribed minimum wage rates. Wages were described as increasing steadily for males from 1924 to 1928, with increases to women’s wages euphemistically summarised as ‘more regular’. The Australian workforce was highly segregated. While men were listed as working in 14 separate industries, women were listed in five; food, drink and related industries; clothing and boots; other manufacturing; domestic and hotel; and shop assistants and clerks.7

Powell was to soon learn that personal relationships and networks developed as a result of her mother’s activism would be important when jobs were becoming scarce. Powell’s mother had joined the local branch of the Labor Party in 1919 and attended its general meetings in the Trade Hall. Powell recalls handing out leaflets when she was still a child. At 14 years-of-age, Powell worked for a short period as a shop assistant at Grace Brothers, Broadway. Her brother had already left school at 13 years-of-age to find work and help support the family. Powell recalls that her mother then ‘struggled very hard’ to make sure that she benefited from three months training in shorthand and typing. Powell held several temporary jobs in small businesses, before starting work with the Labor Daily newspaper – her mother knew the secretary and asked whether there was a job available for her daughter. At 15 years-of-age, Powell joined the Labor Party’s Stanmore branch, and a year later was appointed Assistant Secretary.8

By 1929 unemployment in Australia was escalating; and problems associated with the management of finance, commerce, industry and production were becoming increasingly complex. In November that year, Powell joined the staff of the Australian Labor Party at Room 32, Trades Hall, Sydney. Powell developed a critical mind, engaging in vigorous discussions about current political strategies. She fondly remembers attending Labor Party conferences on Easter weekends in the country with the three other office girls, observing and participating in fiery debates about the method by which socialisation would be introduced, and meeting Jack Lang, the Labor Premier of NSW, who she considered at the time too conservative. Fifty years later, Powell could afford to be more generous, recalling: ‘A lot of people had gratitude for what he did for women’. The Lang government introduced child endowment, widows’ pensions and a moratorium on mortgage interest during the unprecedented and catastrophic world-wide economic depression. The latter allowed Powell’s mother to keep the family home.9

Powell recalls that the Labor Party was divided by internal conflict and an acrimonious tussle for power and patronage within the New South Wales branch, and this friction continued throughout the decade. At a conference held between state premiers and the federal minister in Melbourne from 25 May to 10 June 1931, it was agreed that government expenditure would be reduced by 20 per cent, taxation increased, bank interest reduced, relief provided for those responsible for private mortgages, and ‘conversion’ of the government’s internal debts. Many members of the Federal Labor Caucus expressed their vehement opposition to any reductions in wages, pensions, and social service payments. The Federal Labor Caucus approved the Prime Minister’s motion, accepting the Premiers Conference Plan, 26 votes to 13. Edward (Jack) Holloway and Charles Culley, leading officials of Melbourne and Tasmania Trade Hall Councils respectively, were opposed and resigned their positions as Ministers as a result.10

Fed up with the bitter faction fighting, Powell left the Australian Labor Party office in 1937 for a job as a stenographer with the Australian Railways Union. Her sister, who worked there as a filing clerk, suggested she apply. A year later Powell had progressed to writing articles and book reviews for the eight page union journal The Railroad, when State Secretary and editor, Lloyd Ross, was away. Powell was also given the task of recruiting and organising young women who working in about 30 Railway Refreshment Rooms around the state of New South Wales. Most of the young women worked broken shifts, including a considerable amount of night work, for a meagre wage, which was docked by a compulsory board and lodging payment. There were no extra payments for overtime, and sick-leave was unpaid.11

Campaigns emphasised that these were the future mothers of Australian children and that poor working conditions was stealing their youth. The term ‘girls’ was used to emphasise the worker’s vulnerability and need for protection – employment was usually terminated when employees reached 21 years-of-age. In 1938, Powell successfully represented the Railway Refreshment Room ‘girls’ before the full bench of the NSW Industrial Commission. Its judgement cut the spread of hours, made provisions for overtime, increased wages and allowed employees to live at home without still having to pay board and lodging to an employer.12 At this time, no woman had ever appeared before the Arbitration Court, and the very few female lawyers mostly dealt with divorce. A solicitor later offered to help Powell to do law through the Admission Board, but she refused, because this would have meant giving up her union and political activities.13

Described by a journalist as a ‘slim, attractive girl of twenty-six’, Powell afterwards commented to the Australian Women’s Weekly, that if she had an ultimate ambition, it would be to contribute to improving conditions for women workers. Reporting the results of Powell’s address to the Arbitration Court, the article suggested that ‘much organising ability and much knowledge of cold, hard statistics are tucked away behind the dimples and soft brown eyes of this Australian’.14 The Railroad continued to address subjects such as the formation of the Council of Action for Equal Pay in May1937 and its campaign for ‘the rate for the job’, (Powell was a foundation member), and the dismissal of married women from paid employment. The union also published and distributed pamphlets, reviewed books such as Joan Beauchamp’s Women Who Work, urged its readers to contact the media and politicians, and utilised free air-time on Labor’s radio station, 2KY, to inform and influence the general public and government.15

In her unpublished autobiography Powell stressed that we need to remember the thinking of the day. For instance, people could not imagine being served by a female teller in a bank. In conversations Powell found that many women were ignorant about what equal pay for equal work actually meant for industry and commerce, the retort might be ‘but how could you give a doctor and a waitress the same wage’. Industrial action, she concluded, would have been unsuccessful, because women feared losing their jobs, the unions were controlled and manned by males, even the largely female unions, and successive governments were rarely prepared to act ahead of public opinion.16

Nevertheless, there were some dramatic shifts. During the early 1940s, the demands of war and military service led to shortages of men in some industries and renewed interest in the employment of women, particularly in the armed forces, munitions and armament industries, and other services considered essential for the preservation of national security. The Commonwealth Statistician estimated that the number of female wage and salary earners increased from 417,600 in 1939 to 546,000 in 1943. Trade union membership also increased dramatically, from 32.8 per cent of the total number of female workers in 1939 to 49.2 per cent in 1943.17

The Australian Federal and State governments’ objectives during the war, non-Labor and Labor alike, were to organise the nation’s workforce effectively, to construct the infrastructure necessary to promote the war effort, and to sustain food production. On 29 January 1942, a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii and the entry of the United States of America into the war, the Labor Curtin government announced the formation of a Manpower Directorate, with extensive powers over the armed forces, war and civilian industries. Australia’s commitment to the war shifted from support for allied forces in Europe to one based on national defence. A series of National Security Regulations were drafted, and the Women’s Employment Board was established in March, despite sustained and ongoing resistance by employer organisations. The Board had the authority to determine rates of pay for women working at jobs traditionally performed by men that had not been subject to rulings by the Arbitration Court. Rates of pay were based on the notion of equal pay for equal work, rather than on the traditional basis of ‘needs’. Decisions varied from 60 per cent to 100 per cent of the male rate.18

Up until 1943, as convenor of the Council for Action Pay’s Organisation Commission, Powell worked closely with Muriel Heagney, secretary from 1939 until the Council’s demise in 1948, to help educate the public – members issued pamphlets, promoted the formation of Equal Pay Committees in various unions, and wrote to governments, local, state and Federal. Powell accompanied Jack Ferguson, the Secretary of the Australian Railroad Union, to the Federal Conference of Unions, called by the ACTU in 1942, and was elected to be part of the ACTU delegation to the Federal Cabinet.19 Powell recalls that Heagney, who had a strong personality, was ‘dedicated to equal pay in a way nobody else before or since’, similar to the way in which Pankhurst pursued voting rights for women. Heagney, who was nominated but not elected, was absolutely furious that the ACTU accepted the compromise which Dr H.V. Evatt, then Deputy Prime Minister, proposed to the ACTU, while Jessie Street believed that equal pay could and would be introduced gradually, a five per cent increase each time the commission made a wage decision. Powell obviously impressed government representatives with her knowledge of women’s working conditions and her willingness to compromise. In 1943, she was seconded to the newly established Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service for a year, to work on problems associated with women beginning work in particular industries, and to lecture trainee Industrial Welfare Officers.20

Women’s employment was still considered a controversial subject. The Government decided that nearly all trades and industries were crucial to the war effort, and wages for most of the traditionally female work areas, like textiles, were increased to 75 per cent of the male rate.21 After the National Security Act was terminated in 1946, the Commonwealth continued to impose economic controls by introducing the Defence (Transitional Provisions) bill, which expired at the end of 1947. The Female Minimum Rates Regulation was amended ‘to provide for the payment of 75 per cent of the corresponding minimum male rate fixed by award, determination or agreement for vital industries, including Manufacturing Grocery, Clothing and Roofing Tile and Pottery’.22 But the validity of the government’s decision was challenged by employers’ organisations in the High Court, and not settled until the Basic Wage Case of 1949-50.

Ever innovative, Powell promoted feminist and political agendas during this period by reading and responding on-air to the letters of leading activists, known to her and to each other. Topics discussed included Australian Labor Party policy, women in parliament, the development of community centres, standards of living and the role of the UN. Correspondents disguised their identity to the broader public through the use of a non-de-plume.23 Powell had left the Australian Railroad Union to take up a broadcasting position in December 1944 after the President of the Australian Railroad Union, Les Austin, and member of the Labor Council’s radio committee for 2KY, had advised her that the current presenter of a daily two-hour women’s session in the morning was leaving, and the radio station was looking for someone to replace her. While Powell regretted leaving her employment with the union, this career shift allowed her to care for her mother who was ill with multiple sclerosis.

Powell’s nomination as the Australian representative on the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Correspondence Committee for Women’s Work in 1948 was an acknowledgment of her extensive experience and expertise in industrial relations and the trade union movement, and her willingness to negotiate if it would assist in achieving desired objectives. Formed in 1932, the Committee usually operated through correspondence between members, although occasionally a few met to discuss issues of particular importance. Members were selected on the basis that they had detailed knowledge ‘of the economic and social problems of women’s work’. As a representative, Powell would be responsible for forwarding information about ‘conditions’ in Australia, and ‘general observations and suggestions in regard to questions of general interest’ to the ILO.

However, the ILO’s jurisdiction over issues affecting women’s labour was being challenged as a result of decisions made by the first session of the UN General Assembly, which in 1946 established a Sub Commission on the Status of Women, responsible to the Commission of Human Rights, despite opposition from the United Kingdom, United States and Cuba. Several months later, the UN Economic and Social Council assumed responsibility for the Status of Women, establishing a Commission as a body in its own right, and giving it a comprehensive mandate to address and internationally coordinate all issues affecting women’s equality.24 The Commission for the Status of Women first met in February 1947, with Jessie Street, president of the predominantly middle class United Associations of Women, representing Australia for the first two sessions.25

As the Australian Minister for External Affairs and Attorney-General between 1941 and 1949, former High Court judge, H.V. Evatt, consistently supported cooperation with UN organisations, including the ILO. Evatt believed that the League had been dissolved, not because the organisation had failed in its attempts to ensure peace through the imposition of collective security measures, but because member countries, partners and other important nations had not adequately supported or committed themselves to its activities.26 In 1949, the Australian government chose Mrs Elsie F. Byth, President of the National Council of Women of Queensland, to attend the third session to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, from 21 March to 4 April. She was selected from a ‘panel of names’ submitted by the Australian National Committee of the UN. Eileen Powell, who was a member of this organisation and described as ‘active in industrial matters affecting women’, was selected by the Government to attend as an adviser. As specialised agencies, the ILO and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation were invited to attend and participate in the Commission’s discussions. A number of non-governmental organisations were also invited, including the World Federation of Trade Unions, the World Federation of UN Associations, the Catholic International Union of Social Service, and the World Young Women’s Christian Association.27

At the Status of Women Commission’s meeting, the USSR representative, referring to the significant number of women in paid employment in her country, informed delegates that Australian women received only 50 per cent of men’s wages. As the Australian spokesperson at this Commission, Elsie Byth, President of the National Council of Women of Queensland, attempted to divert criticism of Australian government policy by stressing that the differences between men’s and women’s wages in Australia had declined during the past ten years. She advised delegates that an appropriately assessed ‘family wage’ would prevent the need for married women to search for work in order to ‘supplement the family income’.28 Nevertheless, the majority of Status of Women delegates agreed to a resolution supporting equal pay. Following instructions Byth abstained from voting. This was consistent with the Labor government’s position that the ILO was the appropriate body to discuss ‘rates of pay, hours and conditions of work for both sexes’.29 After examining the Commission’s resolution, the UN Economic and Social Council endorsed the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value and requested the ILO to consider this issue as quickly as possible. Its Governing Body agreed to include this subject on the agenda of the 1950 Conference and instructed the International Labour Office (ILO) to prepare reports for discussion.30

Byth’s confidential report to the Australian government after her attendance at the Status of Women Commission indicates that she followed the Department of External Affairs’ instructions to counter Communist accusations directed towards Australia’s industrial relations system, and that of other British Commonwealth countries.31 It seems highly probable that Powell, as a former employee of the Department of Labour and National Service, was entrusted with the task of ensuring that Byth supported the Australian Government’s position. The increasing influence of Communism in parts of South East Asia was of major concern to western democracies. Declaring his party’s opposition to Communism and its intention to outlaw the Communist Party in Australia, Robert Menzies, leader of the Liberal-Country Party Coalition, convincingly won the Federal elections held in December 1949, and remained Prime Minister until retirement in 1966. In 1950, the Menzies Government began an intensive campaign to ban the Communist Party, claiming that Communists in industry and the public service were a threat to national security.32 The Chifley Labor Government had already advised Powell that she would attend the next Commission on the Status of Women meeting in 1950 as its government adviser, but her nomination was withdrawn after the election, supposedly because it was now considered too expensive to send two delegates.

There was more to this decision, however. Another factor, no doubt taken into consideration, was a government security file on Powell, created in August 1937, which stated that she was a suspected Communist. Based on innuendo and supposition, the file recorded that Powell, as a previous employee of the Australian Labor Party, was well placed to pass information from a female associate to the Communist Party. It included several articles that recorded her achievements for the Railway Restroom Workers. By March 1940, Powell was labelled as a ‘Very Active member of the Communist Party’ [sic], making reference to her speech on International Women’s Day that year, employment with the Australian Railways Union and ‘close’ association with Lloyd Ross, her employer, described as previously ‘a State Committee member of the Party’.33 From 1951, the file indicated that Powell was listed as a possible political speaker for a meeting of North Shore citizens opposed to Japanese rearmament, that Mr Coleman-Browne, an industrial and political journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and Powell’s husband since 1949, was opposed to Communism, and that the Australian Association for the UN, of which Powell was an Executive member from 1952-53, had been infiltrated by Communists, although it was not known how much influence they had within the organisation. Copies of this file were sent to several government departments. Powell remembers feeling like a public servant working with the Department of Labour and National Service ‘hated my guts’ when she visited the Melbourne office and requested some documentation for a meeting of the ILO Correspondence Committee held in 1951.34

It is extremely doubtful that Powell ever directly supported the Communist Party. In the election held in 1951, Powell was the only woman to secure Labor endorsement to contest a Federal seat anywhere in Australia, defeating four male opponents for North Sydney. However, she was unsuccessful in winning the seat. When asked about her commitment to socialism in 1979, Powell stressed that she was not talking about Communism as such. Her beliefs were developed through arguing and bouncing ideas off others at meetings of the Fabian Society held in the early 1930s, led by Bill McNamara, a half-brother of NSW Premier J.T. Lang. Now days, she stated, people were too quick to attach labels to people. It would be more accurate, for instance, she declared, to describe Jessie Street as pro-soviet, rather than a Marxist.35

During the 1950s, Powell continued to contribute to international negotiations to improve women’s working conditions through her membership of the ILO’s Correspondence Committee for Women’s Work and as a correspondent for the International Alliance of Women. In December 1951 she attended a special meeting of the Correspondence Committee, held at the ILO’s headquarters in Geneva. The brief forwarded to Australian government representatives before the International Labour Conference that year was unequivocal in its instructions. Delegates were not to support the adoption of an Equal Remuneration Convention. Most telling was a reminder that organisations which had been promoting equal pay for a considerable period would be taking a great deal of interest in comments made by Australian representatives.36 Male public servants provided most of the administrative and strategic advice to governments, and implementation of policy usually reflected masculine priorities and concerns.37 The brief warned that if the Commonwealth placed pressure on the States to implement ILO instruments, then they might make demands on Treasury. In addition, women’s organisations paid close attention to instructions given to Australian government delegates, and would no doubt be very interested in comments made at this Conference.38

Powell’s knowledge of the industrial relations system in Australia would have influenced several of the Correspondence Committee’s recommendations following the International Labour Conference, including the suggestion that the ILO should seek information from countries that had ‘legally established or recognised machinery for wage determination’ to assess their progress towards meeting its Equal Remuneration Convention, drafted earlier that year. Another was that:

When legislation provided for progressive application of the principle of equal remuneration … adequate safeguards should be provided so that this reduction was recognised as a first step …  Such safeguards might, for example, take the form of specifications in the legal provisions as to time limits for further reductions in the differentials between men’s and women’s rates.39

The Committee of Experts also recognised that unless objective appraisals were made of jobs based on a description, necessary qualifications and acceptable level of performance, ‘completely independent of the person who was to occupy the job’, then work generally performed by women would continue to be undervalued.40

At the Commonwealth Arbitration Court’s hearing of the claim for equal pay in 1969 by the Administrative and Clerical Officers’ Association of the Commonwealth public service and the Meat Employees’ Union, Powell, representing the Australian League of Women Voters, distributed a 16-page submission related to ILO and UN instruments, including Conventions and Recommendations. She then drew on her experiences and detailed knowledge to speak on the subject of equal remuneration for two hours. The ACTU, eight public service unions, and a number of women’s organisations including the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Union of Australian Women and the Australian National Council of Women also presented arguments in support of the removal of the 25 per cent differential between the male and female wage in all awards. The Commonwealth Liberal Coalition Government, ‘intervening’ in the public interest, had a much narrower definition, supporting ‘equal pay for equal work’ on a gradual basis only, stressing that ‘The work performed by females must be the same or substantially the same as that performed by males under the same award’.41 As a result of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission’s judgement on 19 June 1969, equal pay was phased in, on a strictly limited basis, to Commonwealth margins through annual increments, until the full 100 per cent rate was reached in 1972. However, differences between male and female basic wage rates remained until the Commission adopted a single adult minimum wage in 1974.

Despite several probing questions from the Parliamentary Opposition, the Liberal Coalition government refused to publicly acknowledge that it was not prepared to accept the full implications of the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention, that is, that women doing jobs not usually performed by men should have their skills recognised and paid according to similar awards based on male rates of pay.42 Yet, Powell recalls that the Australian Federation of Women Voters rejoiced when they heard the 1969 equal pay decision, as this was the first time the Court did not refer to the concept of ‘needs’ when making their decision. However, she believed that the true heroines of this story are the women who rebelled against receiving only 54 per cent of the male wage during the war, when others entering the workforce received up to 100 per cent. This set the pattern for the Federal Arbitration Court ultimately having to legalise equal pay.43

As Portelli explains, memory is subjective, ‘It involves not only “what” people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, and what they now think they did’.44 Gendered discourse reveals linkages and tensions between personal values, beliefs and public activism, as well as the development of strategies to negotiate relations of power inherent in political and trade union institutions. Eileen Powell’s ‘ultimate ambition’ was to negotiate and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of social justice for working women. This paper provides an overview of some of her achievements and significant contribution to the rise of post-war feminism.