spine, but one can imagine that in some way this assimilation may have continued to favour the historic assumption that technical staff ere 'more skilled' than clerical staff. This situation is much more closely equivalent to the original Dagenham case; at that time the crude view was undoubtedly that anything a woman did was inherently less skilled than a man, and this was a view the Unions at the time fully supported (a  useful description of this position is presented by Beatrix Campbell in the second half of the article I mentioned above).  So here, even more than in the academic part of the university workforce, there will be a need to monitor, gather data and then analyse to see whether a substantive pay gap exists and if so why. The University has set up a Gender Equality Group, as a direct response to last year's Equal Pay Review, to look at the full spectrum of grades across the university in order to assess how well we are doing. This work will, one hopes, ultimately provide the 'sufficient' condition to go with the 'necessary' element of equal pay for equal work. Maybe then, to continue the mathematical metaphor, we will asymptotically approach equality. In the process we should not forget or demean the original women at Dagenham who made a stand and made a difference.  I don't think I need to see the film to understand that much.