Women’s Employment in Britain Higher Appointments Open to Women in the Civil Service 1928

Women Employment in Civil Service

Pamphlets

Council of Women Civil Servants (Higher Grades). Higher Appointments Open to Women in the Civil Service, 1928, publicized routes into senior British government employment three years after women became eligible for direct recruitment into the Administrative Class of the Home Civil Service. The Council, founded in 1920 to represent women in administrative, professional, and executive grades, campaigned during the interwar period for equal opportunity and equal pay and against restrictions including the marriage bar. This pamphlet addressed a practical obstacle to women's advancement: insufficient knowledge of the senior Civil Service careers then available to female applicants. Its publication belongs to the Council's broader campaign to increase women's access to government positions beyond the clerical grades.

Council of Women Civil Servants (Higher Grades). Higher Appointments Open to Women in the Civil Service. London: P. S. King & Son, Ltd., 1928. 8½ x 5½ inches. Eight-page pamphlet in paper wrappers, staple bound. The Council begins from its belief that the "number and the importance of the careers in the Civil Service open to women are not fully recognized," then supplies information intended to acquaint prospective applicants with higher appointments and the procedures for obtaining them. The text describes opportunities in administrative, executive, and clerical work, making the pamphlet both a recruitment document and evidence of the methods used by an organization of women civil servants to encourage women to pursue positions within the government's higher grades. A contemporary listing records another copy as formerly held by the Board of Education library.

The pamphlet appeared during a period when formal access to higher Civil Service employment had expanded without eliminating sex-based restrictions within government employment. Women gained access to direct recruitment into the Administrative Class in 1925, yet women civil servants continued to encounter unequal pay, restricted advancement, and the marriage bar; the Council subsequently presented evidence to the Royal Commission on the Civil Service in 1929–1931 and remained active in campaigns concerning equal pay and women's eligibility for government posts. The present copy has light thumb-soiling, stamps on the front wrapper, a library sticker on the rear, and rusting to the staple binding; good condition. Its eight pages preserve the Council's own effort to translate newly available avenues of advancement into concrete information about careers and application procedures for women seeking higher appointments in the inter war British Civil Service.

Item #16262

Price: $125.00