[Ads-l] "Equal Pay for Equal Work" (Not in OED)

[Shapiro, Fred]

One of the most important feminist slogans, perhaps the most important feminist slogan, is "equal pay for equal work."  This is not included in the Oxford English Dictionary.  The New Yale Book of Quotations, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations all attribute "equal pay for equal work" to Susan B. Anthony in 1869.  Searches of newspaper databases, however, reveal a more accurate history of the slogan, including pre-Anthony applications to white men and to African American men (the latter occurring in Frederick Douglass's periodical).

1855 The Standard (London, Eng.) 17 Aug. 2/4 (Newspapers.com)  EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. ... Now we should be glad to know why an artillery officer should be allowed working pay, and a marine officer not ?  It seems most unfair.

1863 Douglass' Monthly Aug. (ProQuest)  Colored men have a right not only to ask for equal pay for equal work, but that merit, not color, should be the criterion observed by Government in the distribution of places.

1865 Daily Evening Standard (New Bedford, Mass.) 15 Mar. 2/1 (Newspapers.com)  Let women insist on their right to equal pay for equal work, and let them help, instead of looking down upon those of their own sex who labor, and in due time the evils of the present state of things will die out.

1867 Buffalo Commercial Advertiser 28 Mar. 2/9 (Newspapers.com)  EQUAL RIGHTS MEETING ! ... Subject — "The Power of the Ballot to bring to Women Equal Pay for Equal Work."  Speakers — ELIZABETH CADY STANTON and SUSAN B. ANTHONY,

1868 Evening Post (Chicago) 24 Sept. 1 / 2 (Newspapers.com)  In the Labor Union, yesterday, Miss Anthony submitted a report urging working women to learn trades, secure the ballots, and demand an eight-hour law for their labor and equal pay for equal work with men.

Fred Shapiro



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