Fifty Years Since Ford Strikes U.K. Women Still Fighting on Pay
- The 1968 strikes led to equal pay laws for women in Britain
- Anniversary comes as new laws on gender pay introduced in U.K.
Striking machinists from the Ford plant in Dagenham attend a women's conference on equal rights in London, June 28, 1968
Photographer: Bob Aylott/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Fifty years ago, nearly 200 women from an East London Ford Motor Co. factory took to the streets to strike over unfair pay. Their actions halted production for three weeks and ushered in the U.K.’s first equal pay law, kicking off a new front in the battle for gender equality.
“Every year we had this come up with the wages and every year they turned us down,” said Gwen Davis, now 85, on a panel marking the 50th anniversary of the June 7 strikes at the University of East London. “They kept telling us we weren’t skilled workers.” In the end, she said, “We went into the plant, picked up our handbags, locked our lockers and went.”