Womens History main page

1900 to 1909

The Birth of the Suffrage Movement

With Emmeline Pankhurst and others what women were able to achieve in the early 1900's .....

1910 to 1919

Partial Victory and the First World War

The tide had turned and women became united in their cause for the vote, violent clashes between the women's campaigners and the police became the norm ... >

1920 to 1929

Persons in your own right

In the 1920’s fresh from their partial victory over women’s votes, women’s movements felt they had the motivation to take on the wider issues of cultural sex discrimination. ... >

Although, women were now “person’s in their own right” and there were some notable women’s achievements like Amy Johnson with the magnificent saga of her solo flight to Australia in 1930, women were still very much second class citizens ...>

1940 to 1949

World War II, Women get to Work

The pensionable age for women was reduced from 65 to 60 years in 1940, in response to National Spinster’s Pension Association’s petition lobbying for a parliamentary commission for pensions for unmarried women, they collected over 1 million signatures ...>

1950 to 1959

The Domestic Housewife

With advertising and the media via films and women's magazines actively idealising the housewife in order to get women back in the non threatening position of the home and encouraging women’s domesticity, marriage became the goal for many women ... >

1960 to 1969

The Second Wave for Women's Rights Begins

In the 1960's with an economic boom in Britain women gained new freedoms, as a result were targeted again by advertising, but this time with freedom being the significant factor ... >

1970 to 1979

Equal Pay in Law for Women or is it?

1970 saw the Equal Pay Act passed although it took another 5 years for it to come into force and it did not fully address work of equal value which even today is notoriously difficult to define and can still be a legal sticking point ... >

1980 to 1989

Boom and Bust - "The Glass Ceiling"

Although Britain had a woman prime minister and a few trail blazing women of note, like Baroness Barbra Young the first woman leader of the House of Lords, Lady Mary Donaldson the first woman Lord Mayor of London and Elizabeth Butler-Sloss the first woman Law Lord when she was appointed an Appeal Court Judge in the 80’s, for the average women in the workplace it became clear that upward mobility was becoming a real issue and the phrase “The Glass Ceiling” was coined to describe women’s lack of promotion to management and executive positions ... >

1990 to 1999

Girl Power?

This is the first decade that girls academic achievements outstripped boys. Cultural icons like the Spice Girls with their message of “Girl Power” helped, along with trail blazers women could relate to like; Helen Sharman PHD becoming Britain’s first astronaut in 1991, Rebecca Stephens and Alison Hargreaves reaching the summit of Everest (1993&1995) and Caroline Hamilton heading the first all-women expedition to the North Pole in 1997, it had became clear that women had the determination, drive and were just as capable as men of achieving anything they set their minds to ... >

2000 to 2009

Female Brain Drain the Lost Workforce

In 2000 the all women team including Ann Daniels and Caroline Hamilton trek to the South Pole and in 2002 trek to the North Pole becoming the first all-female team to reach both poles. Ellen McArthur’s sails solo around the world and sets a new world record for fasted solo voyage. She was given a Damehood in recognition of her achievement upon return to the UK in 2005 ... >

2010 to 2019

Our Country Today

Although, it cannot be denied that women have come such a very long way since the first wave of the women’s movement at the turn of the 1900’s, we did have a very steep hill to climb and it is wrong to say we are there yet, with government findings suggesting it could take over 70 years to achieve gender balance within the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boardrooms ... >