Wonen's status within libraries 1950s to 1980s

Abstract

Oral histories drawn on in this paper, as well as touching on the personal lives and the workplace practices which impinged on the lives of twenty retired female librarians, provide insight into broader social and cultural changes occurring at the time. While formal equality may have been obtained during the period under analysis female librarians had not achieved substantive equality in terms of equal pay and the sexual division of labour which began in the 1890s persisted. The thrust of librarianship towards professionalism was directed towards the establishment and attainment of tertiary qualifications (McKinnon 1985:7). In addition, professional leaders increasingly identified with the information technology aspects of librarianship which resulted in changes to the labour process. For the most part the women who are the subject of this article conformed to a masculine standard of workplace practice because they were constrained by the image of the professional ‘who didn't get involved in union issues’ because ‘it wasn't a nice thing to do.’ It was this image of professionalism with the emphasis on ‘the improvement of libraries rather than individual status’ (Cook 1977:110) which led to the image of women librarians as passive sufferers of rather than as resisters against discrimination. While the image worked contrary to the voicing of a feminist politics of resistance within libraries, there were some who chose to resist.