My International Women’s Day Inspiration are the Dagenham Women. I was born in Dagenham and my Mum worked at the Ford Motor Plant before I was born. She was there around the time of the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970 which came into force in 1975, which aimed to prohibit inequality of treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment. My Mum and subsequent generations of women have benefited from the tireless campaigning of Rose Boland, Eileen Pullen, Vera Sime, Gwen Davis, and Sheila Douglass. I now find myself working in a very male dominated industry so I appreciate even more and personally benefit from what they fought for – A law makes it illegal to have separate pay scales for men and women based on their sex. I would not be where I am today without them paving the way for my generation of women to be able to go out and work under the same conditions as men.
