Advocating Gender Equity in Europe: Community Norms and British Realities

Although Britain’s ambivalent relationship to Europe is well known, in at least one area, historically Britain was somewhat more amenable to European policies and norms in the 1960s and 1970s and even contributed to their evolution – that of gender equality. As Britain debated and began to prepare for membership in the Community, the question of wage equality –a requirement of the 1957 Treaty of Rome--loomed large in government debates over membership and Britain adopted serious equality measures in anticipation of its future membership application and in consideration of the European Community’s formal, progressive stance on gender equality: the Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. This British legislation in conjunction with European equal pay and non-discrimination directives in turn led to greater activism and to an array of complaints and cases, some of which made their way to the European Court of Justice.  In this respect, Britain provides an interesting case of how transnational institutions, in creating new international norms, can compel the creation of new policies by individual states (if not actually full compliance with those norms). This paper looks first at the context surrounding Britain’s third and successful application for membership in the European Community in the late 1960s, and second at how national and international factors influenced British policy-makers’ positions on gender equity.  It argues that a combination of European Community norms, including transnational feminist activism, in conjunction with gender conflict in Britain led to strengthening British equality legislation subsequently.