Armistice 100: Call for equal pay for women... and the start of Middleton Park, Leeds

Dateline: October 30, 1918...
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One of the positive things to come out of the First World War was the move towards equality of men and women, a social movement which continues to this day.

One hundred years ago today, the pages of the Yorkshire Evening Post carried this story (see picture), about a Leeds committee which heard the case for equality of pay for men and women teachers.

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Leeds Education Committee heard a deputation from the District Federation of Women Teachers which called for equality.

Miss Goodfellow, President of the Federation said that against 40,000 men, there were 120,000 women teachers in the profession and that they were, in the main, paid less than their male counterparts.

The story reads: “As to the work done in the schools, that of women teachers of girls was, she urged, of the first importance. The teaching of the infants came second and the teaching of boys by men only third. The inevitable result of this was that an inferior type of man was drawn into the profession, whereas the best type of woman was no attracted to a career which presented such sex barriers.”

The deputation was informed that the committee would consider the points advanced.

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In other news, the directors of the Middleton Estate and Colliery Company accepted the offer of the trustees of Wade Charity to buy, subject of the inclusion of the township of Middleton, Middleton Woods and adjoining park lands for the purposes of a public park for South Leeds.

It ran to 315 acres and was priced at £40 an acre, making the total price £12,600. The charity planned to donate the park to the Corporation.