Lil O'Callaghan was a union steward in the Transport and General Workers Union at the Ford car plant in Dagenham UK.
She urged the union to back strike action in support of 187 Ford sewing machinists, all women, who were demanding to be recognised as skilled workers and paid the same rate as their skilled male counterparts.
The actions of these women, their union, and Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Employment, ultimately paved the way for the Equal Pay Act 1970.
NOTE
Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, PC (née Betts,1910 – 2002) was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1979, making her one of the longest-serving female MPs in British history. Regarded as one of the most significant Labour Party politicians, Castle developed a close political partnership with Prime Minister Harold Wilson and held several roles in the Cabinet. She remains to date the only woman to have held the office of First Secretary of State. Castle intervened in the Ford sewing machinists' strike of 1968, in which the women of the Dagenham Ford Plant demanded to be paid the same as their male counterparts. Castle helped resolve the strike, which resulted in a pay rise for Ford's female workers (though it fell short of equal pay). Most significantly, Barbara Castle became the driving force behind the Equal Pay Act 1970.
The artist re-states the call for equality for women workers (given women still earn less than men and fewer women occupy positions of seniority) so emphasising that there is still more to be done before full equality is a reality in every woman's life.
