M.P. And His Eggs: Court Appeal For Women’s ‘Rights’

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 October 1947, Page 6

M.P. And His Eggs: Court Appeal For Women’s ‘Rights’

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A rapid-fire discussion on women’s rights,” including a reference to “the injustice” of a male member Qf Parliament getting two eggs with his order at the Frankton railway refreshment rooms, brightened the proceedings of the Arbitration Court today when the Auckland Tailoresses’ Union asked for amendments to three awards. The women’s champion was the secretary of the Tailoresses’ Union, Miss A. E. Cossey, who refused to budge from the contention that “her girls” were entitled to equal pay with men operatives. Women were teaching men their jobs in factories and getting less pay, she said. The cost of living was higher for women. “I sat next to a member of Parliament at Frankton recently. We both ordered bacon and eggs. He received two eggs, but I got only one, but the price was identical,” she ciddocl Mr Justice Tyndall: “As a husband who pays every morning for his. wife’s breakfast, and she only gets one egg, I agree with you heartily.” Exhibiting a woman’s hat and coat, Miss Cossey claimed that women’s clothes were so dear that it take a tailoress years to save up for a coat.' z Unions had been advocating equal pay. for women for over 100 years, she declared. The court’s decision was reserved.