Advancements of Women <333

• 1897 - National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) founded

  By Millicent Fawcett. Co-ordinated societies dedicated to gaining the vote for women.
• 1903 - Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) founded

  More militant than the NUWSS, it was headed by Emmeline Pankhurst, whose daughters Christabel and Sylvia were also leading Suffragettes. Its slogan was ‘deeds not words.’
• 1907 - Qualification of Women (County and Borough Councils) Act

  Women were able to become elected councillors for the first time.
• 1913 - ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ or Prisoner’s (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act

  Passed to allow women on hunger strike to be released to avoid hostile public opinion on force-feeding of prisoners.
• 1914-1918 - First World War

  Women in employment increased from 3,224,600 in July 1914 to 4,814,600 in January 1918. Whilst the lasting effect of this is debateable, many women gained new levels of experi- ence, confidence and money. The Suffragettes also called off their militancy.
• 1918 - Representation of the People Act

  Extended the vote to all men aged 21 and all women over the age of 30. BUT only if they were ratepayers or the wives of ratepayers.
• 1919 - Sex Disqualification Removal Act

  Abolished limitations of female access to the major professions (although the Church was exempt). Lady Nancy Astor became the first female MP to sit in the House of Commons.
• 1923 - Matrimonial Causes Act

  Adjusted the ‘grounds’ for divorce so that the rights of women became the same as those of men.
• 1928 - The Representation of the People Act

  Equalised votes for women to the same as men. All men and women over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. This was widely referred to as the ‘flapper vote’, following a fashionable style of dress among young women during the 1920s.
• 1929 - First female Cabinet member

  Margaret Bondfield becomes Minister for Labour in the minority Labour government.
• 1935

  London County Council lift the ban on married women being teachers.
• 1937 - Matrimonial Causes Act

  Extended the grounds for divorce to include adultery, desertion without cause after three or more years, cruelty , and insanity.
• 1939-45 - Second World War

  From March 1941, all women between 19 and 40 are compelled to register at the labour exchanges for work. By December 1943, over 7.5m women were in paid wartime employment, an increase of 2m on the pre-war figure. As well as industry, women were employed in the auxiliary armed forces, nursing and in the Women’s Land Army.
• 1940 - Old Age and Widows’ Pensions Act

  Reduced the pensionable age for women to 60.
• 1945 - Family Allowances Act

  5s per week paid directly to the mother for each child beyond their first. It was implemented in Au- gust 1946 under Attlee’s government.
• 1961 - Contraceptive pill

  ‘The pill’ is made available through prescription on the NHS.
• 1967 - Abortion Act

  Extended the grounds upon which the termination of a pregnancy could take place.
• 1967 - Matrimonial Causes Act

  Liberalised access to divorce by allowing proceedings to begin in county courts, only transferring to the high court if one partner contested. The financial burden was partially eased by this Act.
• 1969 - Divorce Reform Act

  Divorce could now be made on the basis of ‘irretrievable breakdown’. When the Act came into force in 1971, the statistics for divorce rose sharply.
• 1970

  The Female Eunuch was published by Germaine Greer.
• 1970 - Equal Pay Act

  The Act, intended to procure the same pay for women and men undertaking the same work, signalled the beginning of the end for the second-class status of women in employment. It was steered through Parliament by the Labour MP Barbara Castle.
• 1971– Finance Act

  Allowed husband and wives’ incomes to be taxed separately.
• 1972

  Launch of Spare Rib, a publication strongly identified with the second-wave feminism that emerged in Britain during the early 1970s.
• 1975

  Dame Evelyn Denington became the first woman chairperson of the Greater London Council (GLC)
• 1975 - Sex Discrimination Act

  Discrimination on the grounds of gender became unlawful in employment, education, training , and the provision of goods and services. The Equal Opportunities Commission was established to enforce the legislation.
• 1975—Social Security Act, Social Security Pensions Act, and the Employment Protection Act

  Further laws providing a maternity allowance fund, requiring pension schemes to be open to women on an equal footing to men, and providing maternity leave and outlawing the sacking of pregnant women.
• 1979

  Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister at the general election in May.
• 1986 - Sex Discrimination Act

  Enabled women to retire at the same age as men. Until this Bill, women had enjoyed an earlier age of retirement (sixty) than men, but now women could elect to work until sixty-five years of age.
• 1987

  First women editors of major British newspapers: Wendy Henry of the News of the World and Eve Pollard of the Daily Mirror.