07/05/2025
A little while ago, we hosted a city tour for a visiting girls' high school from the North Island. They took one heck of a field trip to ease the girls into the idea of travelling for university. They heard all our usual stories but we pulled out Jean Parker for them. This was the story we drafted:
"Jean Parker, a Dunedin resident, was a married woman, working for the IRD. She felt it was unfair that a younger employee with less experience had been promoted over her because he was a man. She appealed the decision and won her case but the Public Service Commission retaliated by changing her job and cutting her pay by roughly one third. She had been warned by the commission that this might happen if she took the appeal. The PSA, her union, went into action on her behalf. The case was debated in Parliament, with the Leader of the Opposition claiming that Jean had been penalised for exercising her legal right to appeal an injustice.
At the base of the situation was a fundamental belief that a man was and should be the provider for his family and that women should be wives and mothers. In those days, that was the usual division of labour in a family and a man's wage was usually enough for the whole family. Women were expected to have jobs only until they married or, in later years, take on something part-time when her children were at school or grown up.
There were nationwide protests by the PSA and an Equal Pay Act was passed by Parliament in 1960. It was only a small step in employment equality for women, but an important one. The struggle continues..."
It's such a privilege to have a platform where we can show people history so they can prepare for the future.
