Joan Curlewis

Joan Curlewis (born 11 March 1982) was an Australian advocate of equal pay for women and a key member of the Union of Australian Women in Victoria and a former president of the national body.

Biography Curlewis was a mainstay of the Union of Australian Women in Victoria. She played a key role in the production of both the union's monthly magazine, Our Women, and a weekly radio programme on 3CR Melbourne. These helped to maintain awareness of the problems faced by women in society. The Union of Australian Women was established in 1950 as a left-wing social change organisation that aimed to work for the status and wellbeing of women across the world.

In November 1972, Curlewis made a submission on behalf of the Union of Australian Women to the Full Bench of the Arbitration Commission on the Equal Pay - National Wage case. Curlewis was the UAW Victorian President and National Committee member at this time. In her submission she stated that "The Union of Australian Women regards equal pay for work of equal value as a basic principle of the rights of women, as a human right." Sylvie Shaw from the Women's Liberation Movement also made a submission, which were both loudly applauded. The 1969, the first federal Equal Pay case had established the principle that women who performed 'equal work' alongside men should receive equal pay. However, this judgement still deprived most women of the right of equal pay for equal work because it was not applicable "where the work in question is essentially or usually performed by females but is work upon which male employees may also be employed". Curlewis noted that this work is usually poorly paid, precisely because it is "usually performed by females'. A photocopy of a letter from Rosemary Davies to Curlewis is held by the Australian National University Archives. The letter records Curlewis's responses to questions about her work in the sheet metal industry

Curlewis died suddenly on 11 March 1982 after collapsing at the 3CR Melbourne radio studio. She had just finished taping an interview with women who had worked in the metal industry during World War II.