3 waves of Feminism Timeline (Additional Work)

1910 – 1920

-1918 Women over 30 are granted the right to vote in Britain.

-The Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act is passed, enabling

women to stand as MP.

1930s & 1940s

-1941 The National Service Act is passed introducing conscription for women. All unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 30 are called up for

war work.

1948 The introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) gives everyone free access to health care. Previously, only the insured, usually men,benefited.

1950s & 1960s

-1956 In Britain, legal reforms say that women teachers and civil servants should receive equal pay.

-1958 The Life Peerages Act entitles women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time.

-1964 The Married Women’s Property Act entitles a woman to keep half of any savings she has made from the allowance she is given by her husband.

-1965 Barbara Castle is appointed Minister of Transport, becoming the first female minister of state.

1970s & 1980s

-1970 Working women were refused mortgages in their own right as few women worked continuously. They were only granted mortgages if they could secure the signature of a male guarantor

-1975 The Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education and training. This is another act pushed through by the women’s movement.

-1981 Baroness Young becomes the first woman leader of the House of Lords.

-1985 The Equal Pay (Amendment) Act allows women to be paid the same as men for work of equal value.

1990s & 2000s

-1991The change to the tax regime allowed women more independence and

freedom from their husbands or partners.

-1994 Rape in marriage is made a crime after 15 years of serious campaigning by women’s organisations.

-2002 Parliament passes measures allowing lesbian and unmarried couples to adopt children.

-2005 In Northern Ireland, women’s voluntary and community organisations and their service users march to the headquarters of the Voluntary and Community Unit, Department of Social Development, to deliver a letter of protest about the funding crisis facing the Northern Ireland women’s voluntary and community sector. As a result of the protest, emergency funding is allocated and mass closures of women’s organisations are averted.