Made in Dagenham

Made in Dagenham is a fun, good natured film about the serious issue of the sewing machine workers strike in London, 1968. The women went on strike in protest against unequal pay due to sexual discrimination. The real life events depicted in the film were key in the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970, and 40 years on it remains just as important for a younger generation to appreciate what women went through to get to the position they are today.

Of course, I agree that for performing the same tasks, men and women should receive the same amount of money. But it got me thinking about pay discrepancies between professions. Top professional footballers for example can earn a full time teacher’s entire year’s salary in a single week. Yes, there is a high demand to be the best in the world at kicking a ball... but then it’s only kicking a ball. Athletes may work physically hard, but they arguably haven’t put in the more gruelling hours that a surgeon has spent practising, or a fire fighter has training.

Perhaps the world would be a better place if people were paid based on how much their job served to help the rest of humanity. I know, I know, it could never work. Besides all the arguing about what counts as a ‘helpful’ career, there would end up being a million wannabe doctors and teachers for every one author or waiter, and the world would become a miserable, colourless, robotic place. But it does get to me that the richest people in society are those at the head of giant corporations, or stars in the public eye. Infuriating, no? 

"The Not-So-Silent-Observer"