1920 to 1929
Women become "Persons in their own right"
"I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman" - Virginia Woolf
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. The Six Point Club was established in 1921 to fight for equal rights for women on six points; economic, legal, moral, political, occupational, and social. They were active in trying to promote an Equal Rights Treaty at the League of Nations. Much of its work was done through its journal; Time and Tide.
1920 saw Oxford University not only allowing women to receive the degrees they had achieved, (which was not done previous) but go through the formal ceremony of admission to the university.
Over 40 women retrospectively received their degrees in the very first ceremony. Cambridge University took a further 28 years (1948), shamefully handing out degrees to women in title only (Titular Degrees) and using the discourteous abbreviation of (BA tit).
1922 saw unemployment benefit now including wives and women gaining equal rights in property inheritance.
1923 women gained the ability to divorce men for adultery.
1925 Allowed mothers equality in guardianship rights over their children, women's liberation was gaining momentum.
1928 the Equal Franchise Act was passed for women over 21 gained equal voting rights with men and voted for the first time on 30 May 1929.
Besides the Vote, the most significant piece of legislation of the decade for women was thanks to Emily Murphy, a Canadian women’s rights activist and part of the famous 5 who successfully headed the campaign to overturn the 1876 British Common Law ruling which indicated; "women were eligible for pains and penalties, but not rights and privileges".
Women became "Persons in their own right" in 1929, by order of the Privy Council.