In September 1918, the War Cabinet set up a committee on ‘Women in Industry’:
‘To investigate and report on the relation which should be maintained between the wages of women and men having regard to the interests of both as well as to the value of their work’. Its recommendations were to ‘have in view the necessity of output during the war and the progress and well-being of industry in the future’.
Known as the ‘Atkin Committee’, after its chair, Sir James Atkin, the Committee was established in the aftermath of a strike in 1918 by women transport workers who had been denied pay rises given to their male colleagues. Though the women had been awarded a back-dated pay rise, it was agreed the issue of women’s wages should be subject to a special inquiry, since it involved a question of general principle of national importance. Despite the failure of the committee directly to influence law and policy after the war, its reports illuminate the harsh working conditions of women and the extent to which assumptions about women’s role in the home and the labour market militated against sex equality. The wealth of evidence gathered in the report also showed, however, that women wore more than capable of successfully filling jobs previously the preserve of men and in that sense it is a vital contribution to the struggle for equality and an important part of the campaign for equal pay that continues to this day.
The full version of this landmark is written by Anne Morris.