In association with Made In Dagenham, Certificate 15, at cinemas October 1st
The achievements of the women of Ford Dagenham in pushing the equal pay issue forward should not be underestimated. They rightly take their place in the history of feminism and join some formidable women in the annals of social history.
Many think that the Suffragettes were the origins of the feminist movement, but it can be traced back further to the Abolitionists who fought to eradicate slavery both in the US and Europe. Women stood shoulder to shoulder with men in the fight to end slavery and establish the civil rights movement. They were also brought together across racial and social divides, unified by a common goal. These women included former slaves such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, the author Harriet Beecher Stowe, activist Lydia Maria Child and our own Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire.
The civil rights movement showed women that their voices could be heard and raised questions about the right of every man AND woman to fair treatment. Attention then turned to winning the right to vote for women and the Suffragettes showed that they were prepared to risk life, limb and loss of liberty to achieve their goal. Every woman living today owes them a debt of thanks.
The so called "second wave" of the women's movement rolled off the back of the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 and the legalisation of abortion across many countries in the late 1960s. These events were to prove a powerful catalyst for change. The freedom that women were now able to experience through planning parenthood on their own terms gave birth to the modern feminist movement.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s a host of women writers and academics began questioning traditional female roles and urging women to consider whether being a housewife was truly fulfilling a woman's potential. These women included the author of the seminal Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan, the journalist Gloria Steinem, the academic Germaine Greer and the author of the infamous Fear of Flying, Erica Jong. For the first time women's desires, in the bedroom and the boardroom, were being taken seriously.
All these women played their part in forcing the legisation which enshrined in law a woman's equal rights with men. We are now blessed with choices that would seem incredible to our female counterparts of a hundred years ago and it is sometimes easy to take the advances for granted. Indeed there have been backlashes against feminism with many women refusing to accept the label of feminist and yearning for the choice less simplicity of bygone eras. This has been particularly noticeable with the romanticising of the 1950s housewife in recent years, nowhere more evident than in the current trend for burlesque, vintage fashion and cupcake baking. However, without the women who were prepared to accept on the mantle of feminist and fight for our rights we would not be free to be choose between being a world leader or a stay at home mum. We would still be chained to the kitchen sink.
