How the Dagenham Strike Sparked the Equal Pay Movement
As the largest women’s organisation in the country, we’re celebrating 50 years of both the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act this International Women’s Day.
Fifty years ago, in 1975, the Equal Pay Act (1970) came into force in the UK, and the Sex Discrimination Act was also passed the same year.
Seven years earlier, a determined group of women had laid the foundations for the landmark Equal Pay Act. In 1968, 187 female sewing machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham went on strike. They refused to work because they were being paid 15% less than their male colleagues, despite carrying out the same tasks.
The then Labour employment minister, Barbara Castle, helped the Dagenham sewing machinists to negotiate a settlement. She also promised to deliver legislation, “to make equal pay for equal work a reality”. So, in 1975, for the first time, employers were legally required to pay women and men equal pay for equal work.
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Stirling UNISON 