Made in Dagenham and The Equal Pay Act

Made in Dagenham  Nigel Cole (2010)

Made in Dagenham explores the life of Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins), a female employee of Ford Motor Co in 1960’s Dagenham. Inspired by true events, the narrative follows Rita and her female colleges in their quest for equal pay; it is fact that until 1970 companies and cooperation’s in the United Kingdom could legally pay female employees less than their male co-workers for undertaking similar roles.

A woman’s role in Ford factories included sewing car seats and upholstery for the interior of the company’s vehicles, a task which was then classified as “unskilled labour” and therefore regarded as a lower income job. Due to this classification, the women were paid 15% less than their male colleagues.

Made in Dagenham allows for its audience to sit in the Ford factory alongside Rita and her co-workers; we witness their jokes, discussions and support of one another. The movie also welcomes its audience into the lives of the Ford factory workers, many of whom live in flat blocks very close to the factory grounds: their children attend the same school, their husbands drink at the same pub and their problems are one and the same. However, it is Rita who is willing to lead her friend’s into revolution. Rose Boland, who aided the commencement of the 1968 Ford Sewing Machines Strike, is the inspiration for Sally Hawkins’ character, Rita. Rita is a mother and the wife of a man who throughout the narrative develops the same sexist attitudes towards the women’s strike which are displayed by the majority of the male characters in the film.

Through rallying her colleagues Rita commences a strike which lasts long enough to shut down the production of all vehicles being produced by the Dagenham factory; this takes just three weeks. Following this, Rita and her friends are invited to the office of Employment Secretary Barbra Castle (Miranda Richardson) where a deal is made that their wages will be raised by 7% effective immediately. The movie concludes as it begins, with the women bicycling through the gates of the Ford factory, implying that equilibrium has been restored and the women are proud of their achievements.

However, in 1968 Dagenham the women were not enthralled with their 7% pay rise, for they continued to receive 8% less than their male co-workers. It wasn’t until 1970 that The Equal Pay Act was introduced and the women of Ford were ascended towards the full Grade B rate of pay.

Made in Dagenham is a British made film focussing on British history; after all, The Equal Pay Act was introduced and made law in 1970 for the United Kingdom, whereas American Congress had introduced their Equal Pay Act seven years prior to this. Furthermore, the impact of the 1968 Ford Sewing Machines Strike reached mainland Europe; inspired by the example set by the British women of Ford, women trade unionists founded National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women’s Equal Rights (NJACCWER). In 1969 the NJACCWER hosted a demonstration which had the focus of equal pay for women throughout the continent; the event in Trafalgar Square was attended by 1,000 people. In 1975 The Equal Pay Act was updated to enforce no income inequality between sexes in Britain. This was further cemented in British law when the United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973, as Article 119 in The Treaty of Rome stated male and female employees should receive “equal pay for equal work”.

Overall, Made in Dagenham is a dramatisation of the 1968 Ford Sewing Machines Strike. It displays the triumph of the women who realised the 1960’s were a time for change and took their chance to make a difference for future generations of females.