abstract: 'Despite its importance to gender inequality, household incomes, and

  labor markets, the reasons behind Britain being one of the last major

  Western nations to introduce equal pay have been relatively neglected.

  This article first examines the campaign for equal pay from the late

  Victorian era to its eventual introduction in 1970. Economists predicted

  that equal pay would produce substantial female unemployment, but policy

  makers correctly doubted this-as data collected from early adopters in

  West Europe and North America showed no significant rise in female

  unemployment. Female employment rose substantially during Britain''s

  equal pay implementation-while, in contrast to broadly static earnings

  differentials from 1950 to 1970, there was a significant reduction in

  the gender pay gap, followed by a longer-term trend of narrowing

  differentials. This article explores why equal pay expanded female

  employment, given the absence of any sudden rise in women workers

  productivity or substantial acceleration of structural change in favor

  of female-employing sectors. The article finds that equal pay compelled

  employers to reevaluate the real worth of female workers based on their

  substantial relative human capital growth since 1945. This had not

  hitherto been reflected in relative earnings, owing to barriers such as

  segmented labor markets, monopsonistic employers, and collective

  bargaining procedures that fossilized traditional gender pay

  differentials.'
affiliation: 'Scott, P (Corresponding Author), Univ Reading, Henley Business Sch,
  Int Business Hist, Reading RG6 6AH, Berks, England.

  Scott, Peter, Univ Reading, Henley Business Sch, Int Business Hist, Reading RG6
  6AH, Berks, England.'
article-number: PII S1467222722000441
author: Scott, Peter
author-email: p.m.scott@henley.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Scott
  given: Peter
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1017/eso.2022.44
earlyaccessdate: JAN 2023
eissn: 1467-2235
files: []
issn: 1467-2227
journal: ENTERPRISE \& SOCIETY
keywords: 'Equal pay; Gender inequality; Gender discrimination; Imperfect labour

  markets'
keywords-plus: 'RELATIVE PAY; MINIMUM-WAGES; LABOR-MARKET; EMPLOYMENT; LEGISLATION;

  WORKING; IMPACT'
language: English
month: 2023 JAN 23
number-of-cited-references: '46'
orcid-numbers: Scott, Peter/0000-0003-1230-9040
papis_id: b2507dbad033dd5a919107db4a908e9d
ref: Scott2023pinmoney
times-cited: '0'
title: 'From ``Pin Money″ to Careers: Britain''s Late Move to Equal Pay, Its Consequences,
  and Broader Implications'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000917492400001
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '4'
web-of-science-categories: Business; History Of Social Sciences
year: '2023'