United States 1963

Synopsis

The passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 marked the federal government's legislative foray into safeguarding working women's employment rights. The law itself was weak: it mandated that women doing work "equal" (not "comparable") to men be paid the same as men. It permitted a gradual elimination of wage differentials between men and women and exempted entirely employers with fewer than 25 employees.

The nearly two-decade battle for equal-pay legislation is as important for how it brought together a small group of women active in government, liberal, religious, and labor organizations to advocate for gender equality as it is for the actual law passed. Where once these activists defended protective laws for women workers, after World War II they turned their attention to widening women's employment opportunity. This came about as American women began to think differently about their status in the...