Equal Pay

If you have read my other blog posts (and I don't mind if you haven't!) then you will know that I am a feminist, no that doesn't mean I believe women are and should be seen as better then men and it doesn't mean that I hate men! Femminism is the belief that women and men should be seen as equals. I think a lot of people get confused with what it means to be a Feminist and is perhaps why some men (and women!) do not wan t to associate with the name.

I recently watched a film called 'Made In Dagenham' no before you ask it is not the Essex version of 'Made In Chelsea' that is called TOWIE my loves. This film is set in the late 60's when a mother of two who worked in the Ford Factory in Dagenham stood up for equal pay for women. The film is truly inspirational but at the same time it is quite hard to believe that it took our country and other countries to make it law that women should be given equal pay as men do. We have all heard of the Suffragette's and the amazing campaign and hard work that they put in to get us the right to vote, to me they were the first group of feminists of our country. At the same time we all think of this as history it happened a hundred years ago, to think that the right for equal pay was only made law 50 years ago when my nan was only 20 just doesn't seem right to me. The fight that these women put up is truly inspirational to me and I will forever look up to them and be grateful for what they have given me. If you haven't seen the film before it is currently available on BBC IPlayer, I highly recommend you watch it.

The film urged me to look at what has happened after they won their fight. In May of 1970 the Equal Pay Act was made Law (Hooray!). But what shocked me more is when I found an article posted by ELLE Magazine on equal pay today. I found some shocking statistics... Firstly that Women make up 47% of the UK workforce so just under half. Men who worked full time earned £558 per week in April compared with £462 for women, so in an average month men were being paid £2,232 a month and women were being paid £1,848 a month. Furthermore ELLE discovered that 'Over the last decade, a male graduate could expect to earn on average 20% more than a female graduate'. If a woman is taking the same degree and sitting the same exams as men do then why is it fair that Men get paid 20% more for doing the same job. The main problem that these women faced in Dagenham in the 60's was that FORD were threatening to shut down their factories and produce cars in different countries if they had to pay women the same amount as men. However as ELLE has discovered women wages could increase by about 50% by eliminating gender discrimination in relation to pay and occupation would actually boost our economy by 5%. So what I don't understand is why our government does not enforce it more and why there is still this divide between men and women. Men and Women SHOULD get paid the same amount for doing exactly the SAME job, it is as simple as that. So I urge you to take a look at this website (http://makethempay.co.uk) and see if what you get is the same as men.

The Future of Fashion

So I was in my last lesson of the day on Monday. I had just endured an hour of PE and at my age, in college I think is an outrage. I exercise don't get me wrong but in my own way and in my own time, nobody likes PE if you do then thats a bit weird I'm not going to lie to you. Anyway getting back to it I'd just walked into my last lesson of the day which was Media, a subject that I normally love but to put it bluntly I really could not be bothered with coursework. Instead I ended up exploring the Vogue website one of my regular habbits and I stumbled across Vogue Video and it occurred to me why have I never watched the Vogue youtube channel before when I'm obsessed with the magazine. Stupid, I know.

SO finally getting it to now, I found a series

called 'The Future Of Fashion' with my style icon Alexa Chung. She has won British Style Icon for three years in a row now! If I could have anyones wardrobe it would 100% be hers. What I love about her is she is so honest, she knows she doesn't want to break her bank for clothes just yet (I'm totally with her on that) but she still manages to look amazing! This series looks at all the different areas of fashion and shows exclusive interviews from creative director's, designers, buyers and film directors.

This was perfect for me because I love fashion and it is my dream to work in the industry so to view all these different aspects of it really

helped me decide what area I want to go in to. I have never been good at drawing I can just about draw your basic stickman and even then I manage to ruin it some how by making its arms longer then its legs! This series showed me different roles in the fashion industry, my favourite being fashion buyer. That would be my dream job, buying clothes for a brand or shop and Alexa revealed even she would love to do that. Well to be fair who wouldn't!

The series is available from British Vogue's youtube channel, there are six, ten minute episodes in this series and exciting news Alexa is filming another series! If I was you I would subscribe to Vogue's channel right now so you don't find it months later like I did!