Firstly, you need to get over the picture, OK?
Yes, yes, the littlest one is me.
I have siblings who are a fair bit older than me - my brother is eight years' older, my sister eleven years' older.
Anyhow - this was the only vaguely relevant picture I have relating to the subject at hand. For what it's worth I'm thinking that this picture was taken in the mid-late 1960's.
It was my birthday this week and although I generally don't make that much of a fuss of it, other people do and my friend M said she'd like to take me out by way of a birthday gift. How lovely.
I asked her to take me to "Made in Dagenham".
It's a film about women working for Ford in Dagenham who fought for equal pay in the late sixties.
It's not the best film ever made, hell it's not even the best British film made in the last 10 years but I enjoyed it immensely.
The story isn't that hard to guess (most of it is a matter of record, after all) and in fact the story arc is something of a cliche and yet I found it totally compelling.
Maybe it was some of the opening footage of 1960's advertisements for cars, possibly it was the reconstruction of the world of my childhood.
The casual sexism was shocking and caused gasps in the audience. That was quite amusing in itself.
At one point in the film the heroine's husband tells her what a good husband he's been because he didn't drink excessively and had never raised his hand to her.
She rails at him and says that's how is should be. Of course she's right - she should be able to take decent treatment for granted.
Women should be able to take equal pay for equal work for granted.
Nevertheless, those of us women who have always been paid equally and have treated that as a right need to remember the women who who fought to make that true.
.
We have to be careful not to take this gender equalisation too far or we'll end up with women doing the DIY and men in the kitchen baking cakes!
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, of course.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I suspect it all got away from you men when you caved and we got the vote :-)
Happy birthday! The nice man in Mocha Mocha asked who the americano, latte & cappuchino(sp?) were for :)
ReplyDeleteStill to see the film, though looking forward to it. On casual sexism, conversation on ferry:
ReplyDeleteMe: (announcing to hairy-arsed sailors in crew mess) -"the washing machine is fixed!"
Bosun: "I married mine"
Happy birthday! I'm sorry I wasn't around to help you celebrate!
ReplyDeleteGreat story about equal pay. My undergrad advisor was transgendered -- Joan Roughgarden. I only knew her post-transition, but she was John Roughgarden before that. Excellent scientist; brilliant.
Anyhow, she took a leave of absence when she went through the transitional surgeries and hormones. My other advisor, also the department head, the venerable Paul Ehrlich -- who is terribly, ardently witty -- presided over the faculty meaning when Joan returned from her leave. At the start of the meeting Paul welcomed her back and said, "I just have one question for you. Did it hurt when they cut..." (dramatic pause) "...your salary by 20%?"
:) Love that. (Not pay inequity itself, of course.)