Women, class and oppression (original) (raw)

Women in Australia today face a contradiction. In 1969 the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission granted equal pay. In 1972 it said women should receive ‘equal pay for work of equal value’, to stop employers classifying women’s work differently from virtually identical work done by men. Yet the gap between women and men’s full-time earnings is widening again. Full time women workers earn on average just over 80 per cent of men’s wages and if all workers are compared, the figure drops to 67 per cent.