Women's guild changes South Australian Public Teachers Union stance but their big differences not settled until 1951
South Australian Public Teachers Union, whose male dominance had triggered the breakaway move by the Women's Teachers Guild in 1937, showed signs of change with A. Lynda Tapp, prize-winning teacher and textbook author (see left) nearly elected first female union president in 1941 before May Mills succeeded two years later. Mills (inset) was honoured with a North Terrace, Adelaide city, footpath plaque as part of the state's Jubilee150 celebrations.
After A. Lynda Tapp went very close to being elected as president of the South Australian Public Teachers Union in 1941, May Mills' succeeded in becoming the union’s first president in 1943.
Their success showed the effect of the 1937 breakaway Women Teachers Guild had on challenging patriarchal dominance in the union. From 1937 to 1942, the guild forced the South Australian government education department and the union to take women teachers seriously.
Changes in the union included advocating for women's rest rooms, a direct response to the guild's initiative. Both the union and the guild competed for women's membership and recruited directly from the Training College. The union gave financial support to set up a women teachers association and included the women vice-presidents in deputations. The guild was bemused by the union's attention to women's interests as noted in its Guild Chronicle: “The union refused to allow women's claims. until the guild came into existence. Now it actually pushes them, seeking equal pay for men and women! How that guild of ours keeps the men on their toes! … How long would the little gentlemen dance to the ladies' piping if the guild did not exist?"
Skepticism about the union's commitment to its women members was well founded with still the appearance but not change on important issues. For example, the union delegation led by Peter Corry brought forward a motion on women's salaries at the 1940 Australian Teachers Federation conference. But Corry was arguing only for a common policy on this issue. The whole debate backfired. His motion was overturned and a new one, making equal pay federation policy, was passed. Reluctantly, the South Australian union then adopted equal pay as its platform. But, in 1943, when the union decided to enter the industrial court with a new salaries case, it refused to argue the case for equal pay in spite of the vocal protests of the High School Women Teachers Association.
At the union's annual conference in 1942, a motion was passed telling union council to appoint a committee to explore ways of healing the breach with the guild, with the high school women teachers already cooperating with the guild on matters of mutual interest. The motion came from the Country and Suburban Association, not the influential Male Assistants Association that had triggered the guild’s breakaway. There was no discussion about the original source of dissatisfaction: unequal representation on the union council. But the possibility of capitalising on the rift in the guild (over the promotion of the Ruth Gibson to inspector of girls schools) was canvassed.
Delegates from the union and guild met in August 1942 when union's delegate offered to negotiate equal representation on the council if the guild joined the Union. The guild doubted the union's commitment and maintaining its separate identity. With no resolution to this impasse, the union council withdrew from negotiations with the guild. The guild reiterated its 1937 offer to cooperate in matters of mutual interest but it was years before any meaningful resumed and amalgamation was delayed until 1951.
The guild's activists were single and mostly senior teachers in age and promoted position. They defended their interests in ways that challenged the traditional role of women in society. The irony was that in favouring senior women over the younger women, who predominated as country teachers, and opposing married women from entering the teaching working, they effectively supported the patriarchal order.