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London Society For Women
The London Society for Women’s Suffrage is formed to campaign for female suffrage. -
Women own proprety
The Married Women’s Property Act allows married women to own their own property. Previously, when women married, their property transferred to their husbands. Divorce heavily favoured men, allowing property to remain in their possession. This act allows women to keep their property, married, divorced, single or widowed. -
Clementina Black
Clementina Black, Secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League, secures the first successful equal pay resolution at Trades Union Congress (www.unionhistory.info) 1,400 women at Bryant & May go on strike in protest of the poor wages and dangerous conditions in the matchstick factory. -
Women ask their vote
A delegation of women’s textile workers from Northern England present a 37,000 signatory petition to Parliament demanding votes for women. -
Women’s Social and Political Union
The Women’s Social and Political Union is founded in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, and Annie Kearney. -
Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kearne
Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kearney serve a prison sentence rather than pay a fine after being found guilty of disrupting an election rally. Their prison sentence brought the campaign for votes for women a great deal of publicity and it was soon after that the press coined the term ‘suffragettes’ to describe the more militant campaigners. -
Women can be elected
The National Federation of Women Workers is set up by Mary MacArthur, women can be elected onto borough and county councils and can also be elected mayor. -
Hyde Park
Two hundred and fifty thousand people gather in Hyde Park, London, in support of women’s suffrage. -
Women's Propaganda
The National Federation of Women Workers, along with many of the other women's organisations, campaigned to expose the evils of the sweated trades. Their propaganda was very effective and played a major part in inducing the Liberal government to pass the Trade Boards Act which was an attempt to fix minimum wages in certain of the most exploitative trades, usually the ones in which women predominated. -
March of the Women
British writer, feminist and composer Ethel Smyth composes the feminist anthem ‘March of the Women’ which is dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst. -
Women’s Institute
The first Women’s Institute in Britain is founded in North Wales at Llanfairpwll. Thousands of women march in Glasgow in response to the greedy rent increases faced by women whose husbands were at war. Out of this came the Rent Restriction Act which changed the housing system and benefited poor people across the country -
Women’s Peace Crusade
Mary Barbour founds the Women’s Peace Crusade, an anti-war group which sought to create links with a range of women concerned about the war’s effect on families, homes and jobs. -
Right to vote
Women over 30 are granted the right to vote in Britain -
Sex Discrimination Removal
The Sex Discrimination Removal Act allows women access to the legal profession and accountancy. -
Law of Property
The Law of Property Act allows both husband and wife to inherit property equally. -
Matrimonial Causes Act
The Matrimonial Causes Act makes grounds for divorce the same for women and men. Influential acts of 1857 paved the way for this act, which charted the advances of women to gain parity with men and contributed to the broader process of granting civil rights to women. -
Virginia Woolf's novel
All women in Britain gain equal voting rights with men. Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘Orlando’ (written for Vita Sackville-West) is released and is probably the first English novel to deal with a transgender character. -
Flapper Election
The first general election in which women are allowed to vote occurs. The election is sometimes referred to as the ‘Flapper Election’ due to the thousands of women turning out to vote. Women become ‘persons’ in their own right, by order of the Privy Council.
