The ban was only on factory work, not work in general, and did not cover nurses, or other care workers, airline staff, military, laboratory technicians, office workers, farm workers, managers, and other roles. Emergency services & support workers (i.e. police women, police phone staff, and earlier telegraph operators) were specifically exempted from the legislation, as were some types of government workers. Furthermore from 1951 (the implementation of Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1948) companies could & did obtain exemptions from the Department of Employment and Productivity (I think that's what it was called, then?).thirdcrank wrote: ↑6 May 2022, 4:19pm
Have you examples of women in any sort of number working nights prior to the equal opportunities legislation? Presumably nursing would be an example but I cannot think of others. (I don't think it affects the point about changing work patterns but the ban on women working nights affected things like immigration.)
Secondly, the ban was during the 11-hour period between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m, which meant that women could still work a few hours in the evening (not technically night work) even in roles that were included in the ban.
I read, but cannot now find the source, that the night work ban for women probably only affected about 1/4th of women workers.