Dr Stephanie Petrie is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the University of Liverpool’s School of Law and Social Justice
“The International Women’s Day event held at the University of Liverpool on the ended with a showing of the film Made in Dagenham.
The film was based on events that began in 1968 when lowly-paid women in the car industry took industrial action – not for equal pay initially but for more pay as they had been graded as ‘unskilled’ workers. But their industrial action gathered momentum and support and led, not only to an initial pay rise for the women but also the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
The time was right
It could be said that the wider context was a significant contributor to this success. First the time was right as issues of equality for women had re-emerged into the public consciousness. Although often trivialised by the media as ‘bra-burning’ feminism the topic of equality between the sexes was hotly debated in many spheres.
Second the Secretary of State for Employment was Barbara Castle, MP for Blackburn from 1945 to 1979. Castle was a powerful figure at the heart of the Labour government, supported the women and pushed the Equal Pay Act through.
So does the socio-political context today support equity in the workplace?
The current law is the Equality Act 2010 that has brought together a mass of legislation covering discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief and age. On the one hand we might conclude we have developed a more sophisticated understanding of inequalities but on the other it has been argued that this has led to an individualistic approach to discrimination which is, by its nature systemic.
Furthermore many of the actions taken by the women in 1968 have been criminalised. Strikes are only lawful if a ballot is organised according to legal rules that include postal voting – no speedy decisions, no show of hands. Flying picketing, secondary picketing and picketing that don’t conform to a plethora of rules concerning noise and behaviour are criminal offences. The police have special powers to stop a mass picket if they think there is a danger to public disorder or property and you can be arrested if you fail to stop picketing when told to do so by the police.
These issues may not be significant if equal pay at least has been achieved but evidence about the situation of women in the workplace, summarised by Vicky Knight, national chair of the TUC women’s committee before the film, suggests that progress has been extremely slow.
Notwithstanding the fact that women make up 50% of the workforce full-time female workers still earn, on average, almost 10% less than full-time male workers 45 years after the Equal Pay Act 1970!
Under the current coalition government the gap has been reduced by just 0.06%. Heads of households who are lone parents, and over 90% are women, face a double whammy. Changes to fiscal benefits have ushered in a new system of compulsion and sanctions designed to ‘encourage’ citizens to seek employment.
Although current regulations are supposed to protect lone parents from sanctions if they can’t find day care for their children or need to work school hours these regulations are confusing and poorly understood. Employers are reluctant to offer hours that fit school timetables, term times or additional closures let alone offer workplace flexibility to respond to a child’s illness or other need and it’s especially difficult for those working at weekends or evenings to find childcare.
Although since 2011 the overall number of people in employment has been going up this has masked the problem of under-employment. More people wishing to work full-time are working part-time, sometimes with several part-time jobs, or are on ‘zero hours’ contracts as this is the only employment available especially for women.
Part-time women workers, almost two fifths of all women in work, earn on average 37.9% than comparable male employees. In some parts of the country, such as Bridgwater, West Lancashire and Harrow West two thirds of women earn less than a living wage. Is it any wonder, then, that despite the UK being one of the richest nations in the world, there has been a huge increase in applications to food banks by families with children?
Turn out on May 7
The Dagenham women found that their pay issues were part of a wider injustice and they had to become involved in political processes in order to improve the lives of all women and their families.
And so Vicky Knight ended her introduction to the film with the following impassioned plea ‘10 million women voters did not used their vote in the last election – so if nothing else motivates us to engage with and to represent women in politics – let’s all turn out on May 7th and have our voices heard”
