An email from Jonathan Fryer reminds me that the principle of equal pay we take for granted came from the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
In 1975, EU directives gave women the right of legal redress for unequal pay through the courts. Then came directives outlawing discrimination on the basis of race. Then in 2006 age discrimination laws were introduced in the UK, again directly stemming from legislation passed by the EU.
Hywel said
Did the Equal Pay Act passed in 1970 (not not brought into effect till 1975) not give women that power?. Similarly Race Relations legislation pre-dated our entry into the (then) EEC.
It always seems to me that the anti-discrimination agenda ran parallel in the UK and EU