Instead of ‘leaning in’ and climbing the corporate ladder, a new generation is taking aim at economic and gender inequality
“Enola Holmes strikes again!” exclaims the trailer for Millie Bobby Brown’s new Netflix film about Sherlock Holmes’s younger sister – a peppy Victorian sleuth with attitude, who makes continual Fleabag-style asides to camera. “Strikes again!” refers not only to its status as a sequel, but to its setting. The film takes place during the 1888 matchgirls’ strike, when more than a thousand women and girls walked out of the Bryant & May factory in east London in protest against toxic working conditions – 14-hour days, poverty wages and the disease of “phossy jaw”, caused by managerial indifference to health and safety. In one scene, strike leader Sarah Chapman stands on a table, shouting: “It’s time for us to refuse to work. It’s time to tell them – NO!”
It is still both unexpected and heartening to see striking women on screen (unless, of course, you are the Telegraph’s film critic, who gave this otherwise well-reviewed film a paltry 2/5 stars). The film’s representation of women protesting against material conditions is also a sign of the times. After several decades of being pushed aside, marginalised and positioned as unfashionable or even embarrassing, this form of feminism, which tackles gendered and economic exploitation at the same time, is resurgent. Forthright female general secretaries are steering the action of several unions, including Christina McAnea at Unison, Jo Grady at UCU and Sharon Graham of Unite. As Frances O’Grady, outgoing leader of the TUC, puts it, this winter’s wave of strike action is being powered by “a generation of women who are saying ‘enough is enough’”. There is renewed anger at gendered pay gaps and marches in the street for affordable childcare. Nursery costs in the UK are some of the most expensive in Europe, while nursery workers themselves are paid a pittance.
