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 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a labor law that prohibits gender-based wage discrimination in

the United States, and it is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that prohibits

different pay or benefits for women and men participating in the same jobs or responsibilities. It was

created in an effort to correct a century-old problem of gender-based discrimination.

The wage gap was a problem and continues to be a problem to this day. Women made up

25% of the American workforce by the early 20th century. Even though they were allowed to work,

they were normally paid far less than their male counterparts. Even in the case where these parties

performed the same task or responsibility, they were paid significantly less as well as forced to

contend with laws that restricted their working hours. Many women were not even allowed to work

at night. This problem hit the boiling point during World War II, when some women were entering

factory jobs. During WWII, there was a shortage of male workers due to enlistment. This is the

reason why in 1942, the National War Labor Board endorsed policies that provided equal pay when

women were directly replacing male counterparts. After three years, U.S. Congress introduced the

Women’s Equal Pay Act in 1945, and it failed to past despite the campaigns by women’s groups.

Even with the campaigns being done, little progress was made on this front until 1960. Because of

the strong opinions surrounding this issue, President John F. Kennedy’s administration was coalesced

by the calls for a federal equal pay act (History.com Editors).

The photo that I chose is President John F. Kennedy handing out Americana flag pins after

signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963. He is surrounded by women that held positions of power during

that time. Those positions include senators, legislators, directors of government divisions,

chairwomen of organizations, etc. Although this photo is supposed to represent women and the

power we hold, it is centered around a man. I decided that through this project I would like to put

more emphasis on the people around him rather than John F. Kennedy himself. This is why I wanted

to list the names of the women rather than emphasize the man in the center of the photo.