[Mistwraith]

Originally Posted by Mek

its for an essay I am doing for college, about the changing role of women, in employment and education, over the last 50 years. im just in the early stages of it but im struggling to find why such an act was brought in in the first place....

Because employers will use the law to cut costs in wages, did so and still do.
eg: When the minimum wage went up last year my employer (Thresher Group, so if your concidering them for an employer .. dont ) set in the contracts of new staff that they get paid single rate on sundays and bank holidays to cut costs.

Likewise before the equal pay act came in employers would hire women to a do a job over men because they were just as good but did not need to pay them as much.

So basically Mek, the equal pay act protected both women and men.