���˿���

There has been a long fight for women’s employment rights, and it’s still ongoing around the world.

You might have heard of ‘smashing the glass ceiling’, or of fighting for ‘equal pay’. The former refers to obstacles that get in the way of women reaching top jobs in their profession, and the latter is the legal right that men and women must be paid the same for doing the same or similar jobs. This also includes other employee benefits like number of holidays and bonuses, and was written into law in the UK in 1970 with the Equal Pay Act.

Both the glass ceiling and equal pay have been explored in film, tv and theatre for decades. Bitesize has taken a look at three pieces of pop culture which help explain the pressures women have previously faced in the workplace, and highlight some of the real-life stories that led to changes being made.

Made In Dagenham

Set in 1968, this film-turned-musical tells the true story of how the courageous actions of a group of female sewing machinists in Dagenham, East London, helped bring about the Equal Pay Act.

They worked for the Ford Motor Company, stitching together the material for car seats. It was intricate work that had to be completed to a high standard, with employees needing to pass a test before getting the job. However, even though there were men in the company trained to a similar level, the female workers were only receiving 85% of what their equivalent male colleagues were earning.

In the film and musical, the fictional main character Rita O’Grady is encouraged by a sympathetic union steward to take her pay grievances to the Ford management. When the meeting goes poorly, she and the other women decide to strike.

In real life, 187 women went on strike for three weeks, at both the Dagenham and Halewood (Merseyside) plants, bringing Ford’s UK car production to a grinding halt. Then employment secretary, Barbara Castle, took an interest in their case and held discussions with the strikers on 28 June 1968.

Eventually, Mrs Castle was able to negotiate a resolution. All 187 women would return to work, although they would not receive equal pay. Instead, they agreed to be paid 92% of their male colleagues’ rate, up from 85%. It would take another 16 years and a second strike in 1984 for their work to be recognised as skilled, and paid accordingly.

Two years after working with the Dagenham women, Barbara Castle was successfully able to spearhead the Equal Pay Act through the UK Parliament.

Good Girls Revolt

Good Girls Revolt tells the story of a group of women who decide to sue their employer, News of the Week, for gender discrimination.

Beginning in 1969, the show follows three female researchers as they gradually come to realise the obstructions they face in the workplace and organise to challenge them. Unlike their male colleagues, the women are not permitted to write articles or have their name in the byline, and they receive lower pay. They also face sexual harassment. When looking to hire a new female researcher, a male reporter asks the applicants for their waist size.

Good Girls Revolt is based on a book called The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace, which was written by Lynn Povich. In 1970, she was one of 46 women working for the real-life Newsweek who filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the US, stating that they were “systematically discriminated against in both hiring and promotion and are forced to assume a subsidiary role simply because they are women”. At the time, she was something of an anomaly as she had been allowed to become the only female junior writer at the publication.

In the show, the women go public with their complaint on the very same day that News of the Week publishes a cover story that examines the increasingly loud and noticeable feminist movement. This actually happened in real life.

9 to 5

If you’re at all familiar with the lyrics of Dolly Parton’s song 9 to 5, you won’t be too surprised to learn that the film and musical that share its name focus heavily on the experiences of women in the workplace. When Dolly sings that “it's all taking and no giving/They just use your mind, and they never give you credit”, she could easily be talking about the women in Made in Dagenham or Good Girls Revolt.

In this comedy, three female secretaries get revenge on their sexist and arrogant boss by… abducting him. In his absence, they take over the running of the company and bring in sweeping changes that benefit the women who work there. These include equal pay, flexible working hours, job-sharing and an onsite day-care centre for employee’s children. As a result, both employee morale and productivity increase.

Eventually, their boss does manage to escape and plans to turn the women over to the police. However, on returning to the office he is visited by the company’s Chair of the Board, who has taken note of the sudden surge in productivity and commends him for the changes he has supposedly made. Whilst the women don’t receive the credit, they do benefit from their boss being rewarded with a new job which sends him to Brazil, far away from them.