I went to see Made in Dagenham last night. Nice to see a film about women protesting against sexual discrimination. I really enjoyed it, I love Sally Hawkins, who plays the main character, Rita O’Grady, and while it was not really a piece of hard hitting cinema, it is raising awareness of how recently women were fighting for equality in the form of equal pay.
However, I feel that a real opportunity to raise awareness of the continuing struggle to close the pay gap that still exists today between men and women has been missed by the film makers. The gap, as of December 2009, is a 12% gap between men’s and women’s full-time hourly rates, and a shocking 32% gap when you compare women’s part time hourly rate to men’s full time hourly rate. These figures are taken from the Close the Gap website. Close the Gap works across Scotland with employers and employees, to encourage and enable action to address the gender pay gap.
As I left the cinema last night I couldn’t help thinking how this film, as awareness raising as it was, also gave the impression that there was gender equality with regards to wages thanks to the Equal Pay Act of 1970, which only came into force on 29 December 1975 and still didn’t make equal pay a reality. I understand that the Director, Nigel Cole, wanted to leave the film on a positive note, but at the price of leaving people without the full picture?
So, should you go to see the film or talk to anyone about it, please let people know that this is not the full picture and that women are still fighting for equal pay today, 40 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed.
Thinking about all of this has really put me in the mood for tonights Cinema Feminista course.
