'Fifty years after we fought for equal pay, it's really sad that we're still talking about it'

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When Gemma Arterton swept down the red carpet at the BAFTAs last month, she was accompanied by two very special guests. Both were dressed elegantly in black, to support the Time’s Up movement. But unlike many of the other celebrities under the spotlight, neither had splashed out on a new frock.

“We wanted to wear black, because that’s the colour of protest,” says Gwen Davis. “But I didn’t buy something new. I’m 85, about to have a second knee replacement – I think this will be my last red carpet event!”

Davis and her friend Eileen Pullen were invited by Arterton because in this year of historic milestones for women, they have been at the centre of some of them.

Not only is it 100 years since some women got the vote, but it’s 50 years since the pair and 185 other machinists at the Ford plant in Dagenham went on strike – a precursor to the 1970 Equal Pay Act. In 2015, Davies and Pullen were also key supporters for another campaign – which resulted in new legislation which now means all companies with more than 250 employees must publish their gender pay gap, by the end of the month.

Already, many are anticipating some shocking results which will re-ignite even more conversations about pay parity between men and women.

It is a depressing state of affairs for Gwen and Eileen that half a century since they first raised the issue, it is a conversation we are still having to have today. ‘I’m really sad we’re here again,” says Eileen Pullen. “We were the ringleaders and started the equal pay thing off, but it’s bad it's still going on” Davis says: “Women still don’t have it easy, so you have to keep fighting.”

Equal pay and women’s rights have been entwined for more than a hundred years. Those fighting in the early part of the century were not only concerned with suffrage but also equal pay and property rights. Women became an increasing part of the labour market during the First World War, and the government promised equal pay, only to renege on it.

It was not until 50 years later that a leap forward was made when the female machinists in Dagenham, who made the seats for Ford’s cars, became fed up with a succession of paltry pay rises, and finally rebelled against the car giant after it attempted to reclassify their jobs as unskilled – and then pay them 15 per cent less than men in the same category.

“You couldn’t get a job as a machinist in Ford unless you had two years experience and you had to sit a test in front of the boss,” recalls Davis. “There was a girl called Rose who had made dresses for the Queen, and she still had to sit the test. And then we found out that we were paid the same as those men who swept the floor. We were treated like underdogs.”

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Yet it was still a difficult decision to strike – they lost wages, and some of their coworkers’ support.

“It was scary,” says Davis. “I had three young children at the time. I was lucky, my husband never grumbled once. He wasn’t working at Ford, but it was difficult for those whose husbands did, when the men were laid off. But we realised that it was the only way to get what we wanted.”

The plant came to a standstill, and some of the women – Pullen among them – marched on Parliament, where eight met Barbara Castle, then employment secretary. The march, immortalised in the 2010 film, had an early mishap where a banner declaring ‘We Want Sex Equality’ didn’t completely unfurl, leaving the last word concealed. “We did have a laugh over that,” says Pullen.

Castle finally brokered an agreement and the machinists went back to work. But although their action would go on to lead to the Equal Pay Act, the machinists did not immediately get equal pay. Instead they were paid at 92 per cent of the rate of male unskilled workers, up from the 85 per cent they previously received.

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It would take 16 years and another strike before the women would get what they were asking for – to be recognised as skilled workers.

Today, Tesco is facing an equal pay claim, with echoes of the Dagenham case. One hundred female Tesco shop floor workers have followed similar claims made against Asda and Sainsbury’s, in demanding parity with men who work in the company’s warehouses, and can earn up to ￡4 an hour more. If successful, Tesco could face claims for back pay for 200,000 workers – amounting to as much as ￡4bn.

Although the Dagenham fight was in an age where men and women could be legally paid different amounts for doing the same job, it hinged on the same issue now at the heart of the Tesco dispute: whether men and women doing different jobs are also doing work of equal worth. Should shelf stackers be valued as highly as warehouse workers? Or those at the same level but in different departments of blue chip companies? Or, as highlighted recently by Carrie Gracie, male and female international editors at the BBC?

“The truth is that if a woman is doing a job it is valued less, because we value her less,” says Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society. “That is what sexism is all about.”

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Some have argued that it is impossible to work out what jobs are of equal value. Paula Lee of solicitors Leigh Day, acting for the supermarket workers, disagrees and thinks that blue chip organisations have a very good idea and have worked out risk assessments for years on this basis.

“I’m not suggesting it’s simple,” she says. “It’s difficult for various subjective reasons but we need to be starting conversations about the kind of comparators we look at – such as the demands roles make, the qualifications you need, and the responsibility you have for decision making.”

Fifty years on from their own fight, the Dagenham strikers see parallels with the current debate. “Ford didn’t think our job was important,” says Davis. “But it was very important. If you wanted to sell a car and there was a wheel missing, you could get a new wheel delivered, but you couldn’t sell a car without seats.”

Both she and Pullen feel that until recently their contribution had been largely forgotten. “We just went back to work as normal, and it was only when the film came out that it all started up,” says Pullen. “The BAFTA red carpet was a reminder that while much has been achieved, there is still more to do”, says Davis. “Gemma treated us to tea at the Savoy before and she asked us to come along as friends.

"We’re very proud of what we achieved with Dagenham, but even if we stop now at our age, others are going to have to continue.”     

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