This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of business articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Discrimination, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Discrimination on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DiscriminationWikipedia:WikiProject DiscriminationTemplate:WikiProject DiscriminationDiscrimination articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Organized Labour, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Organized Labour on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Organized LabourWikipedia:WikiProject Organized LabourTemplate:WikiProject Organized Labourorganized labour articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sociology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sociology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SociologyWikipedia:WikiProject SociologyTemplate:WikiProject Sociologysociology articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.WomenWikipedia:WikiProject WomenTemplate:WikiProject WomenWikiProject Women articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights articles
Latest comment: 5 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion
I think it should be noted in the article that American writer and suffragist "Grace Greenwood" (pen name of Sara Jane Clarke Lippincott) wrote the precursor to the phrase "equal pay for equal work."
In her article defending Susan B. Anthony and women's rights, Grace Greenwood wrote for the New York Times on June 30, 1873:
"I do not say that equal pay for equal services will never be accorded to women, even in the civil service, till she has the ballot to back her demand; but that is the private opinion of many high Government officials." (emphasis added)
This shows that the debate over whether women could secure equal compensation was tethered to the right to vote existed for at least two decades before Carrie Ashton Johnson's article, as well as the phrasing for equal pay. Grace Greenwood was one of the most prolific and popular writers of the 1800s; given Carrie Ashton Johnson's familiarity with the history of women suffrage, it's very likely she was familiar with Grace Greenwood and Greenwood's use of this phrase.
"equal pay for equal services" is nearly identical to "equal pay for equal work." It is likely that Carrie Ashton Johnson updated the wording of the phrase Greenwood originally published.
I think that "equal pay for equal services" is historically significant, and should be included.