History was not made by those who did nothing

Hey. So.

I watched a film and had some thoughts and they couldn't fit in a tweet.

I've just finished watching 'Made in Dagenham' (2010), and it struck me in a way that few films do. The film follows the fictional Rita O'Grady, who leads the 1968 Ford female machinists in a strike, when they learn they are being re-graded as Category B (less skilled production jobs) and that they will be paid 15% less than men in the same section. The women fight against the sexual discrimination they face in the workplace and strike in a demand for equal pay, which eventually leads to the 1970 Equal Pay Act.

The film made me stop and think for a few reasons. I knew that women didn't have equal pay and that it has been a contested issue for many years since, but it was the casual way that the men of the film reacted to the strike that shocked me. Husbands berating wives for standing up for their political and financial rights. There was one scene where a man was talking to a woman, ordering to be served some cheese, grapes and brandy. I actually thought he was in a restaurant, and being pretty damn rude to a waitress; turns out it was his wife. My parents chuckled along at the ridicule of the sexism, but I couldn't help but think, 'You were alive when this was going on', something that seems so Victorian to me in attitude. And it does still go on, around the world.

In another scene, factory managers were discussing the possible implications of a strike, with two of the female machinists sat with them. The conversation turned to, 'We can't possibly know what the women think.' With 'the women' sat right there. At one point, Rita scoffs, 'Bollocks'. Which was my sentiments exactly. I really loved this film, from it's historical content to it's 60's aesthetic and it's relatable characters. Even more so, I loved it because it made me think, it irritated me, and to me, that's the mark of a good film - as long as it makes me feel something, I don't mind. (For my musical theatre pals, it's a musical too apparently which I'll be searching out soon.)

I was reading a book at lunch today, the novel I'm in the middle of; Jodi Picoult's 'Small Great Things' (which deals with racism in America, is brilliant and deserves a post all to itself). A character in it said to her daughter, 'From where you stepped in, in your life, it looks like we've got miles to go...But me?...I'm amazed at how far we've come'. This is discussing racism but could also apply to so many other situations. It was weird how it related to this film, because yes, the fact that this sexism was so recent is shocking and we do still have miles to go. But at the same time, I'm also amazed at how far we've come. When you think of how rigid the system was, that things were done this way for more than 2000 years of history...how lucky are we to be born into a time when things are finally changing? And they're only changing because of the people who did something. 

I study History at uni and so every time I see a film or read a book about a historical event that I consider to be important that I don't know about, I feel a slight wave of guilt. It then makes me think; how much do other people not know? The only reason I watched this film tonight was because I was studying the topic of Sexual Politics today for an exam, and it was a recommended film. It really does scare me how much we don't know, how much we simply aren't taught, and so don't have an awareness about. And yet without these women and men, where would we be now? This is true of so many events, regarding sex, race, age, class etc.

Our education system is failing us by not educating us in such important matters, which really irritates me. How many of us grew up being taught about the Tudors, the Egyptians, World War Two? (Which I'm not saying aren't important, don't get me wrong, just arguing for a bit of variety). I'm pretty sure I learnt about canals and railways for the entirety of my Year 7-9 History lessons, which was the main reason I didn't take History for GCSE. Imagine how much we would have benefitted by having, say, a 'History and Politics' class that was compulsory till Year 11, rather than the depths of trigonometry and homeostasis and Shakespeare. Again, these are important, but we are doing children a disservice by not offering them the simple facts before the complex ones. Even if it just taught people the basics, introduced them to topics. I know so many people who wish they knew more about Politics; they vote Labour 'because I'm a student', or Conservative 'because that's what my Dad does'. History and politics are deeply intertwined; you cannot engage with one and simply ignore the other.

And so I think one of my new years resolutions, which I don't ever really do/commit to, will be to try and keep educating myself. I've been lucky enough to have a really decent education and so I owe it to myself to keep learning. Whether it's from films, fiction books, YouTube, blogs, historical books, podcasts, just talking to people, the information is out there. I might keep writing about it aswell, if it's bugging me so much that I feel I have to articulate it in some form.

I do think that with films that deal with historical content; they don't have to be ground breaking. They don't have to be masterpieces, and yes, of course there are some flaws with this piece as a film. But all they have to do is get people talking. They have to get the information out there about the important things that have happened so that we don't forget the historical context of the world we live in. Because the most dangerous thing we can do is forget.

It's true - history was not made by those who did nothing. Because, as Rita says in the film, 'Well, you've got to do something, haven't you?'

p.s the title of this post is a quote from Netflix's 'The Crown'. It struck me at the time and so I noted it down - it seemed pretty apt here.