Serious research for this book began in early 1988 when I spent six months in Oxford, England. Traveling frequently to London for interviews and spending a week interviewing at the European Community headquarters in Brussels, I conducted seventy-one interviews – twentyeight in person, the rest by telephone. For the United Kingdom as for my research elsewhere, some of the phone interviews were conducted in succeeding years after my travel had been completed. Thirty of my interviews were with U.K. or EC political/administrative officials having some responsibility for equal value now or in the past. Eighteen were with scholars, and eleven with officials of organizations representing business or employees. Other interviews conducted were with politicians, management consultants, industrial tribunal members, independent experts assisting the tribunals, and people in business. Among my written sources, the Equal Opportunities Review, which gives detailed coverage and analysis of developments on equal pay for equal value throughout the United Kingdom and the EC more generally, proved especially helpful.

In the winter and spring of 1989 I turned to Australia. The written sources, both on equal value per se and on the contentious question of wage fixation in Australia, were excellent. After absorbing as much as possible, I traveled to Australia, interviewing in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra for two weeks in late March and early April. In all, thirty-two interviews were conducted, sixteen in person. Fourteen of these were with academics, the remainder with government and arbitration commission officials, union and business representatives, politicians, and journalists.

In the late spring, summer, and fall of 1989, I devoted my attention to Minnesota, traveling to that state for a week in June and for two two weeks in August.