How the “comparable worth” campaign succeeded
On a hillside in San Francisco a small public school bears the
name of one of the pioneers in the movement for workplace
equality. Kate Kennedy was born in Ireland, and like so many
others, came to the United States during the Great Potato Famine
of 1845-49. She was the first San Francisco teacher to join a
union. In 1874, she brought a non-discrimination suit that
provided the precedent for “equal pay for equal work.” Ultimately
a federal law passed in 1963 made it illegal to pay men and women
working in the same place different salaries for similar work.
