I am Malala and Made in Dagenham: Themes and Ideas

Nigel Coles’ film “Made in Dagenham” and Malala Yousafasi’s memoir “I am Malala” both focus on the extreme injustices faced by women of their time, and the stories that influenced the formation of women's rights globally.  Both texts can be compared regarding their array of conflicts, specifically how they explore the importance of taking a stand. The two texts reveal both the negative and positive consequences of taking a stand, but how these must be fought through in order to create change. On the other hand, lacking the bravery to stand up will have these inequalities to remain the same or fuel them to get worse. Nevertheless, within Yousafasi’s book and Cole’s film change was unlikely to be immediate resulting in Rita and Malala to battle their inequality for quite some time. These battles grew harder and harder likely the cause of the social and cultural backgrounds of both England’s Dagenham and Pakistan’s Swat valley, causing personal challenges to arise for the characters as well as divisions within their societies.

Within the plot of their texts, both Cole and Yousafzai exhibit how standing up for themselves creates fundamental strides of change in their societies. The film ‘Made in Dagenham” follows Rita O’Grady as she petitions for a strike for her Machinists equal rights and “the wages that go with” semi-skilled workers. She continues through her conflict with Ford authorities bravely, making waves across the continent as more strikes take place in which Rita attends and makes her case known, “This strike is about one thing and one thing only! Fairness. Equal pay or nothing!”. Rita O’Grady provides herself as a prime example of how important taking a stand is as her actions, strikes and overall bravery lead to the Equal Pay act of 1970. On the other hand, “I am Malala” follows the upbringing of Malala herself, and what lead her to where she is today. Her activism for women’s rights in education lead her to be the target of the Taliban resulting in her attempted assassination. Ziauddin makes clear how they were forced to move from their home in Pakistan to London in order to keep Malala safe. Despite these sacrifices, Malala’s ability to stand up for her beliefs was strong enough to make dominant change in her community even enough so that an authoritative military organisation had a target on her back from fear of her making too much of a change. Malala herself knows the importance of standing up and speaking out quoting, “if people were silent nothing would change.”

Through Cole’s “Made in Dagenham” and Yousafzai’s “I am Malala” it is evident that the change in which they strive for is unlikely to be immediate, even so both women strive for change. Through Cole’s film we meet Rita’s husband Eddie, whom himself struggles with the gender role reversal thrown upon him as Rita begin to be unavailable due to her involvement in the strikes. Eddie attempts to seek affirmation from Rita for being a good husband “…and I’ve never once raised me hand to ya, or the kids.” through this what seem in which Rita responds with “that is as it should be”. The clear strain on their relationship is a source of what seems to Eddie like a lost battle or never ending fight as he expresses to Rita that there will be no change immediately. Much to Eddie’s dismay Rita succeeds in her battle in only a matter of time. In different circumstances Yousafzai’s “I am Malala”, Malala concludes her memoir with still change to be made. Yes, she did make great change, spreading awareness and promoting women’s education however only slowly moves toward her intended goal. Her activism eventually made change globally with her words inspiring young women “today we all know education is our basic right” however there are some third world countries that continue to disbelieve this stance. Nonetheless both women, no matter the timeframe continued with their fight for equality and took a stand along with the challenge.

Despite the great change and progress evident in both texts, standing up for equality also brought about negative consequences for the women and their families, however they had to be endured through their battle. Through Cole’s “Made in Dagenham”, as the machinists go on strike it leads Rita’s best friend Connie away from her post-traumatic-stress suffering husband George alone at home. Although not her intention, this resulted in George being isolated and in turn sadly progressed to George’s suicide. Naturally enough this event caused Connie to resent Rita quite thoroughly “No you’re not [sorry]…I should’ve been there”. Despite the setback and the dampened relationship between Connie and Rita the women continue to stand up for their rights, and well as a brave Connie continuing through her grief. Similarly, Malala Yousafzai also very much encountered the negative consequences of taking a stand. On her bus ride home from school Malala was shot and left for dead by a gunman working for the Taliban. Through her miraculous survival, Malala “realised what the Taliban had done was make [her] campaign global,” creating a worldwide platform for education activism. Both girls take in their stride the good and the bad of their campaigns and the sacrifices that go along with it. However comparatively both texts differ in the degree of these outcomes for the protagonists with Rita herself loosing very little in the aftermath of her strikes, however, contrastingly Malala suffered through various surgeries and being forcefully displaced from her Pakistan home.

In conclusion both “I am Malala” and “Made in Dagenham” display the importance of taking a stand to the injustices of their society. With the long-term commitments and no guarantee of success, they continue through their fight. The ways in which the negative consequences that were forced on the women through their avocation were if anything surprising for Rita and Malala however they both demonstrate the rewards of bravery.