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  The Rights
  of Working
  Women

I was told by the manager that I would not be eligible for the job if I were married and being kept by my husband.
(Letter to Mrs Hughes from Mrs J. M Dwyer regarding her application for a waitress position with Queensland Government Railways, 2 September 1970, p. 1. UQFL193, Box 15, Folder: Working Women)

The right to equal pay was not the only struggle facing working women. Activists also fought for the rights of married women to work. Between 1958 and 1960 the Queensland government sacked over 1700 married women from the teaching service. The reason given for the sackings was that priority needed to be given to those teachers graduating from training college. The fact that some female teachers were reinstated at the beginning of the following years suggested the Department was trying to avoid Christmas holiday pay. Women who were reinstated could be sacked with a week’s notice. Women's groups and female activists were outraged over the inadequate job security for married women, and the UAW, the Trade Union Women’s Committee, Business and Professional Women and the Queensland Women’s Electoral League all lodged protests.

Working mothers were also disadvantaged by unfair work practices such as inadequate maternity leave and an absence of after-school childcare facilities. In 1966, Mr LA Suggars, General Manager of the Chamber of Manufacture in Brisbane, commented,

I am sure the average woman could not imagine anything worse than being served by a pregnant shop assistant ... you can’t expect a woman who works in public to continue her career during pregnancy for obvious aesthetic and economic reasons. ('Queensland Women Irate Over Insults', Our Women, October/December 1966, p. 20)

Stella Nord, member of the UAW Brisbane Working Women's Group was incensed! Replying to the comments made by Mr Suggars, Stella argued,

[t]here is something far worse than being served by a pregnant shop assistant, and that is being charged shockingly high prices ... as for saying pregnant women don't dress smartly — pregnant women are beautiful ... the main thing for pregnant women who want to work ... is that suitable work is available with every facility for sitting down and rest periods when needed. ('Queensland Women Irate Over Insults', Our Women, October/December 1966, p. 20)




TOP TO BOTTOM
 
1. Letter from Mrs JM Dwyer to Mrs Hughes, Secretary of the UAW, explaining her ineligibility to work as a waitress with Queensland Government Railways because she was married, September 1970. The UAW took on Mrs Dwyer's case, lobbying the Secretary of the Australian Railways Union and the Queensland Minister for Transport. (UQFL193, Box 15, Folder: Working Women)
 
2. Letter to members of UAW explaining an open session on working women at the annual meeting in 1957. (UQFL193, Box 15, Folder: Working Women)
 
3. One of many 'What I wish for' survey forms used at the 1957 UAW annual meeting to express the concerns of working women including equal pay, union affairs and childcare facilities. (UQFL193, Box 15, Folder: Working Women)
 
4. Survey on childcare needs conducted by the UAW in conjunction with a program on the needs of working women c. 1968. (UQFL193, Box 15, Folder: Working Women)
 
5. Leaflet by Working Women’s Charter Campaign on the continued struggle faced by working women, c. 1970s. (UQFL175, Box 1, Folder 1)
 
6. Leaflet advertising the Trades and Labour Council of Queensland Working Women’s Charter Campaign, c. 1970s. (UQFL156, Box 16, Folder: Branch Correspondence)
 
7. Photograph of Stella Nord, President of the Brisbane Working Women's Group of the UAW and union member of the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union appearing in Our Women, 1966. ('Queensland Women Irate Over Insults', Our Women, October/December 1966, p. 20