9 - Still waiting – gender, race and ethnicity

Summary

Introduction

Article 7 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law’. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. But notwithstanding the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, access to jobs and levels of pay still vary systematically with the race, ethnicity and gender of the individual. This is true throughout our planet, in both developing and developed countries. White heterosexual males receive higher pay and more privileged access to jobs well in excess of what could be explained by their levels of education and vocational qualifications. Non-white men, non-heterosexuals, disabled individuals and women of all colours are still waiting for the day when labour market discrimination is a thing of the past. Most acute has been the experience of First Nations people. Western imperialism has inflicted significant economic, social and cultural harms on the indigenous populations of Australia, the Americas and Africa.

In Australia, racial and gender pay discriminations were enshrined in law for nearly seven decades during the 20th century. Indigenous Australians were given equal statutory basic wage (read minimum wage) only in 1969. Other restrictions also applied. For instance, as Thornton and Luker’ study notes:

In New South Wales, under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW), which remained in force until 1969, the Aborigines Protection Board (from 1940 the Aborigines Welfare Board) had the power to control and regulate all areas of Aboriginal life, including the power to indenture Aboriginal children as ‘apprentices’, collect their wages, place them in the Board's combined interest-bearing trust account, and spend the money at its discretion.

(Thornton and Luker, 2009: 650)

And all women, white or non-white, had to wait until 1975 before their statutory basic wage was raised to the level of the white male basic wage. With few exceptions (for example, university teaching) this was the case even when men and women had strictly the same job.

Women faced a long battle for pay equality throughout the West. After more than 100 years of focused activism and legislative efforts, equal pay legislation began gathering pace only during the last three decades of the 20th century.