Caris McKee-Shell
The history of feminism explained through the laws passed and the women who advocated for change.
Feminism. A term often wrongly overshadowed and drowned by the concept that feminists are women that hate men. This, of course, is untrue. Feminism is the progression of society towards equality between all people, and it has been a battle women have been fighting for over a century. Medieval England was a patriarchal society, in which women were told how to behave and act, always second to men in the rules of the hierarchy. They were viewed as those to care for their children, house and husband, they were not to have jobs or a life outside of their family. If they chose to behave otherwise, to act against these strict behaviours, they were outcast and treated with disdain. Since then, there has been a great progression in the ways that women are viewed, and this tangled, messy history, venturing back as far as the 1800s, can be summarised simply by the laws passed and the brave actions of many women who came before us, and created the life we have now.
1866 marks one of the first impressions made into changing the views of our country - the London’s Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed to campaign. Their main objective was to gain women a right to vote in national and local elections, and sparking the beginning and formation of the notorious Suffragettes, one of the most recognised female advocacy groups. Four years later, in 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act was passed in parliament, allowing women to own their own property and belongings so that in the event of a divorce, they were permitted to keep their own land. Prior to this, divorce was heavily unbalanced in the favour of men, and women were left with virtually nothing when they divorced. The Qualification of Women Act, passed in 1907, said that women could be elected onto country councils, and a year later 250,000 people gathered in Hyde Park, London, in support of women’s suffrage. 1915 is the year that marks the Rent Restriction Act. The war had begun a year prior to this, and while many women were left at home, the rent increased greatly. In response, thousands of women marched in Glasgow to protest and this resulted in the Rent Restriction Act, benefiting those less fortunate all across the country.
Finally in 1918, women over 30 were granted the right to vote, and the main objective from which the Suffragettes began materialised. This is a point in time which is widely considered to symbolise women being granted a voice, a right to speak - their words and thoughts mattered in politics, a concept often interpreted to be the concern of men only. Two years following this was the Sex Discrimination Removal Act, which allowed women to work as lawyers and civil servants - women were previously discouraged from working so this demonstrates the progression and reformation of society at this stage. Following this was the Law of Property Act in 1922, stating that both husband and wife could inherit property equally, and then the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923 which levelled the grounds for divorce, making it equal for men and women. In 1928, all women finally gained equal voting rights with men and in 1948 the NHS gave free access to healthcare for everyone, whereas previously it was only offered to those who were insured, usually men. The first women to sit in the House of Lords were Baroness Swanborough, Lady Reading and Baroness Barbra Wooton, after the Life Peerages Act of 1958, again signalling significant political change.
One of the most recognised and influential acts to be passed in the history of feminism, after giving women the right to vote, was the Abortion Act of 1967, which legalised abortions on certain medical grounds. Before this women were vilified for having abortions, themselves and those who carried them out receiving prison sentences and punishments, despite the lack of a reliable contraceptive in the country at the time. This law signified women’s control over their own bodies, which had previously been constricted and limited. In 1970, the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women lower rates than men for the same work, a direct result of women’s strike action of Ford machinists earlier that year. The Sex Discrimination Act in 1975 made it illegal to discriminate against women in work, eduction, and training, and in 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister. She served for 11 years and during this time made many bold moves, including instructing the army to invade the Falklands and the opposition to the miners strike. Following this, the Court of Appeals stated in 1982 that bars and pubs were no longer allowed to refuse service to women. Women were then enabled to retire at the same age as men in 1986 under the Sex Discrimination (Amendment) Act, and in 1994, after 15 long years of campaigning, rape in marriage is formally made a crime.
This shows the progression of revolts against a sexist hierarchy within our country between 1866 and 1994, leading us to the main ideas in present day society. Injustice is happening all the time, and battles, small and large, against the patriarchy are consistently bringing us closer and closer to equality. Women are not less than men in their strengths, and thankfully the large majority of this country now recognise that our greatest assets are our minds, in the same way that they are to men. Extraditing women from political, scientific, mathematical, and any other role they so wished to enter, has brutally damaged the United Kingdom in the past. Women in history have been overshadowed, working behind the scenes during events like wars to find complex solutions yet never being granted the attention and the admiration they deserved for their actions. Working as a group, allowing all people who are capable, despite sex or any other factor that may make them unique from others, makes us stronger and allows different and diverse perspective that lead to greater achievements. There are by many accounts a long way to go and women, not only in this country but throughout the world will continue to strive for the idyllic future, in which we are all treated without discrimination or prejudice, and are measured not by our bodies but by our minds.
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