Made in Dagenham(2010)
dir. Nigel Cole
Women sewing Ford seats walk out for equal pay.
Where to watch: Free with ads: Roku Channel; rent $3.99 Amazon/Apple TV/Fandango At Home; buy $12.99-13.99 (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-07). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Dagenham, 1968. The 187 women who sew car seats at Ford's plant are classed as unskilled and paid a fraction of the men. When Ford tries to cut them further, they walk out, and the strike shuts down the company's British production. Led by a factory worker, Rita, they take their case all the way to the Employment Secretary, Barbara Castle. The strike was real and it pushed Britain toward the Equal Pay Act of 1970. A warm, funny and well-acted drama.
Why it’s here
It's a film about women who wouldn't be told their work was worth less. What's punk is the walk-out and the cheerful insistence. What's pedagogical is how it shows a pay gap as a classification trick, 'unskilled' meaning 'women', and how a handful of workers moved a government. Pairs with Salt of the Earth and Harlan County, USA. Note: rated R/PG-13 depending on cut (some swearing); dramatized, and Rita O'Grady is a composite character. A mainstream crowd-pleaser, so it sits well next to the heavier documentaries.
Where This Film Lives
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