Throughout the Second World War British feminist groups remained active, pushing for legal and economic equality between men and women. The war had thrown into stark relief questions about the nature of the society the British were fighting to preserve. For some, this highlighted faults in this society that were contradictory to the wars lofty aims. As Rebecca D. Sieff wrote:
‘Is this policy [unequal pay for men and women] not in fundamental opposition to the democratic principles for which we are fighting, and more in line with those we are fighting against?’
Rebecca D. Sieff, ‘Women and Self-Emancipation’ [Leaflet], Women’s Publicity Planning Association (1945), Women’s Library Collection, 5/WPP/F2.
Sieff was a feminist and the Chairmen of the Women’s Publicity Planning Association (WPPA), a women’s group formed in December 1939. The WPPA was a hub of wartime feminist activity. Alongside other women’s organisations, such as the National Association of Women Civil Servants, the National Council of Women and the Six Point Group, the WPPA campaigned for equal compensation for war injuries suffered by men and women. The Personal Injuries (Civilians) Scheme of 1941 dictated that injured single women should receive compensation at seven shillings a week less than single men. Protests by women’s groups sparked mass meetings, debates in parliament and a large number of campaigning leaflets, many examples of which are held in the Women’s Library collection at the LSE Library.
Walter Womersley, wartime Minister of Pensions, defended the scheme in a debate in the House of Commons in May 1941. In his view, it was not a matter of discrimination against women, but meeting the same terms as the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906.
‘It is not a question of sex differentiation, but of compensating them on the same lines as under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, and I think that is as much as one can expect the Government to do at the moment.’
‘PERSONAL INJURIES (EMERGENCY PROVISIONS) ACT, 1939’, House of Commons Debate, 1 May 1941, hansard.millbanksystems.com
Feminist groups were not, however, satisfied with this explanation and the topic continued to arise in the House of Commons throughout the early 1940s. On one such occasion in December 1941, Conservative MP Miss Thelma Cazalet-Keir asked Womersley to reconsider, in light of a petition supporting the cause which was signed by over 1700 people in Manchester.
Miss Cazalet: May I ask my right hon. Friend whether he is aware that no less a person than Lord Randolph Churchill said that all great men make mistakes, and whether he will show himself a great man by owning up in this case that he also has made a mistake?
Sir. W. Womersley: I am aware that some unknown person has said that even women can make mistakes. I do not agree that I have made a mistake. I stand by the statement which I made previously.
WAR INJURIES (WOMEN), House of Commons Debate, 11 December 1941, hansard.millbanksystems.com
Following another debate in the House of Commons in November 1942, a Select Committee was established to investigate the issue. Members of the Committee included Cazalet-Keir, Mrs Mavis Tate (Conservative MP and campaigner for women’s rights) and Dr Edith Summerskill (Labour MP and feminist).
Following the report of the Committee, it was announced by Womersley in April 1943 that the rates of injury allowance for employed women would be raised to match the allowance for employed men. It was also established that the allowance for ‘non-gainfully occupied persons’, which included housewives, should also be raised, thus ending sex discrimination in the compensation laws. It was, to borrow a phrase from MP Tom Driberg, ‘an admirable illustration of the value of prodding the Government’ [1], and arguably the only legislative feminist victory in Britain during World War Two.
By Katie Carpenter
Katie is a Citizens project intern and PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London, researching material at the Women’s Library at the LSE Library.
[1] [‘WAR INJURIES (EQUAL COMPENSATION)’, House of Commons Debate, 6 April 1943, hansard.millbanksystems.com]
