By 1955 the campaign for equal pay in the public sector was well under way. Opposition among MPs, although often covert, was widespread on both sides of the House. The three women parliamentarians supported equal pay, but even Hilda Ross, a member of the governing National Party and minister for women and children, was unable to get action taken on the matter. Three members of the Public Service Association's Equal Pay Committee are shown here meeting New Zealand’s female members of Parliament, Ethel McMillan (far left), Mabel Howard (third from left) and Hilda Ross (far right). The PSA members are Margot Jenkins (second from left), Joyce McBeath (centre) and Margaret Brand (third from right). Dawn Bennie (second from right) was a PSA employee who assisted the equal pay committee. The PSA was the public sector employees’ union.