A Spot of Wartime Sexism

I have just one chapter left to write for Christmas Wishes for the Railway Girls. With every book I write, I do more research. In this book, one of the characters starts a new clerical job so I read up about wartime office work. There have been office scenes in previous books, so I was looking for something new.... and I came across DOP.

What's DOP? Well, it stands for 'Difference of Pay.'

Here's how it works. Suppose the boss of the office is going to be off sick for some time - say with a broken leg that's going to involve being at home for at least a month. The office deputy is therefore asked to step up and take on the boss's responsibilities while he is absent. For this, the deputy is given DOP - difference of pay - in other words, his salary as deputy is increased to the boss's salary. Fair enough, since he is doing the boss's job.

Did you notice how, in my example, the deputy is a man? That's because you had to be a man to be awarded DOP. A female deputy in the same situation wouldn't get DOP - but she would still be expected to take on the boss's role.

Grr!