If you’re an American, you’re probably thinking of the man or woman who delivers your mail. The U.S. Postal Service is the largest civilian employer in the United States, with more than 547,000 employees. But in other countries, the job of delivering mail is a woman’s job. In Japan, the job is called kangoku-shokuji (literally, “mail clerk”), and in the U.K., it’s called post office clerk.
The first women to work in the U.K. post office were in 1847, when the post office was separated from the Royal Mail. They were called “postal clerks,” and they were paid less than the men. By the time women got to work as post office clerks, they were being paid less than the men they replaced.
The first women to work in the U.S. post office were in 1875, when women were hired to work in the post office in Washington, D.C.
In both countries, it took a long time for women to be paid equally for equal work.
In the U.K.