Women Workers and the New Zealand Arbitration Court, 1894-1920

Abstract

Feminist historians have shown how the Australian arbitration system sustained and systematised the advantages of men over women in the workplace; the arbitration system acted as an agent in the construction of gender in the paid workforce and set the rate for 'women's work' at just over half the rate for 'men's work'.2 The impact on women of the only other arbitration system in the world, that of New Zealand, has not received any attention. The major study of arbitration in New Zealand, James Holt's Compulsory Arbitration in New Zealand: The First Forty Years, does not explore the Court's actions regarding women at all.3 This gap is also evident in earlier studies, such as Noel Woods' Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration in New Zealand.* Similarly, Erik Olssen's 'Women, Work and Family, 1880-1926', the only substantial work on women and work in New Zealand, makes no mention of the Arbitration Court.5