Here are highlights of the drive by American women for pay equal to that of men.
1828-36. Women workers in Dover, N.H., the United Tailoresses Society in New York, and the Lady Shoe Binders in Lynn, Mass., strike for equal pay and hours.1848. The first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca, N.Y., calls for equality in commerce.
1878. The Knights of Labor, a precursor of the AFL-CIO, endorses equal pay for equal work.
1920. The Women's Bureau is established in the Labor Department.
1923. The federal government adopts equal pay for equal work by civil servants.
1934. Attorney General Homer S. Cummins rules that government agencies have the right to limit certain federal jobs to one sex or the other.
1940-1945. Wage rules require equal pay for women substituting for men in war industries during World War II.
1952. Republican and Democratic women lobby to have party platforms endorse comparable pay for work of comparable value.
1955. A bill calling for women and men to get "comparable pay" for "comparable work" is introduced in Congress.
1961. Congress buries a request by President John F. Kennedy that it pass a fair employment practices bill, which would forbid job discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age or sex.
(EDITORS: SHORT AND LONG VERSIONS OF REST OF CHART FOLLOW)
SHORT VERSION:
1962. Efforts to get Congress to approve a bill requiring that men and women get comparable pay for comparable work from anyone with more than 25 employees fall short.
1963. A modified version, guaranteeing "equal pay" for "equal work," and covering just over 20 percent of women workers, is approved by Congress in May and signed into law by Kennedy on June 10.
LONG VERSION (Sub following for the last two items in the short version):
March 1962. Kennedy asks Congress to pass a narrower version of the fair employment bill, requiring only that men and women get comparable pay for comparable work if they work for someone with more than 25 employees.
July 1962. The House passes the bill after adopting a Republican amendment calling for "equal pay" for "equal work," which is harder to enforce.
July 1962. Overturning the 1934 opinion of the attorney general, Kennedy issues an executive order saying all civil service jobs and promotions must be available "without regard to sex except in unusual situations."
October 1962. The Senate approves a slightly different equal pay bill on a voice vote. But final action by Congress is blocked by parliamentary maneuvers in the House.
April 1963. The comparable worth bill is reintroduced and endorsed by the Kennedy administration, women's organizations, unions, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Churches and the National Consumers' League. Against are the U.S. and state chambers of commerce, which argue that sex-based wage discrimination is fading without a federal law, and three corporations that want to continue paying women less than men.
May 1963. The administration withdraws its bill. It submits a weaker "equal pay" version that applies only to those workplaces already covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. They employ less than 21 percent of the 25 million women workers.
May 1963. The Senate passes the stripped-down bill by a voice vote, the House passes a similar bill, and the Senate agrees to the House version. Though only "one bite of the cherry," the bill sets an important precedent, says Rep. Katharine St. George, R-N.Y.
June 1963. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act into law.
Sources: American Association of University Women; Congressional Quarterly; "The Spirit of Houston, The First National Women's Conference."