Women's History Facts

Equality in the Workplace

As World War II came to an end in 1945, some 300,000 women were abruptly fired from their jobs to make room in the work force for returning veterans. At the beginning of the war, 95% of women war workers had said they would quit as soon as the war ended; by war's end, a Roper poll showed that two out of three women wanted permanent jobs. After 20 years, the Equal Pay Act was passed by the U. S. Congress in 1963, amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to provide equal pay for equal work without discrimination on the basis of sex. The legislation was seriously limited, and to this day the women's movement has not been able to pass an equal pay for comparable worth federal law. Such a law would prevent the occupational segregation that allows employers to continue to pay women less than men, since under the Equal Pay Act they are only required to pay equal amounts for the same job.

On July 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the act included a prohibition against discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. The inclusion of sex was a result of action taken by women's rights activist Congresswoman Martha Griffiths (D-MI), with the unwitting assistance of southern members of Congress who had hoped that including sex would keep the Act from being passed altogether.

On August 5, 1968, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission ruled 3-2 that it violated the Civil Rights Act for employees to place separate male and female "Help Wanted" ads in newspapers, except where sex was a bona fide occupational qualification.

In 1971, a state court ruling in Pennsylvania became the first in the country to declare sex classified job advertising illegal. The Pittsburgh Press and Post Gazette were given 30 days to end the sex segregation of their "Help Wanted" classified ads. A rulings by the Equal Employment Opportunity commission along with this case were victories for Pittsburgh NOW which had first initiated action against the Press in 1969 and continued to exert pressure until the court decision.

In the closing hours of the Congressional session in 1978, passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Bill overturned the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Gilbert vs. G.E. (1976) and Satty vs. Nashville Gas Co. (1977). Both decisions had approved discrimination against "pregnant people," the former in the payment of disability benefits for women recovering from childbirth and the latter in denying women the use of their earned sick leave for hospitalization and recovery from childbirth. The hard-won victory was the result of a two-year massive campaign by NOW and a coalition of labor, feminist, and pro-choice groups.

Are you or is someone you know being sexually harassed? Get help, hotlines, and information on FMF's Sexual Harassment Resources page.

The U. S. Supreme Court affirmed for the first time in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, that sexual harassment on the job is sex discrimination and a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Feminist lawyer, teacher, writer and activist Catherine MacKinnon pioneered the legal claim for sexual harrassment as a form of sex discrimination. Beginning in 1983, with Andrea Dworkin, she conceived and wrote ordinances recognizing pornography as a violation of civil rights.

[ For the historical context of most of these facts and events, see our online version of the acclaimed Feminist Chronicles, the source for all facts not otherwise cited on this page]

Educational Equality | Political Equality | Equality in the Workplace