ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the attempt by some women unionists to be rid of the separate Women’s Conference in the Trades Union Congress. Just as there were differences in outlook between women trade union leaders, there were also noticeably different attitudes between women leaders and their rank and file members over the question of equal pay and the notion of equality in the workplace. The chapter aims to interrogate an issue, which became linked with equal pay during the late 1960s, the question of whether or not protective legislation for women factory workers should be abolished. A variety of positions for and against the protective legislation were adopted by numerous groups of women articulating their own ideas about how women were to gain equality with men. All the different perspectives that 'women' adopted towards equal pay and what was needed to gain a more equitable situation for themselves in workplaces were expressed in connection with the issue of protective legislation.
