Songfacts®:

• This is the title track to the film Made In Dagenham, which documents the 1968 female sewing machinists strike that resulted in the passing of the 1960 Equal Pay Act. Billy Bragg and David Arnold wrote the song, which was Sandie Shaw's first recording since 1988's Hello Angel.
• The Dagenham-born Sandie Shaw told Mojo magazine the song and the film struck a chord: "The song just makes you want to run down the street and shout, Yes! As does the film, I blubbed and laughed all the way through. These women, who were seen to be worth nothing, stood up for their rights and changed industrial law, but then they would do that because they're Dagenham girls. They were inspirational."
• Sandie Shaw was a punch-card operator at the Dagenham Ford factory where the striking sewing machinists were employed before her singing career took off. She worked there several years before the incident that is portrayed in the film.