Gender Legislation Timetable

Task 1: Legislation Investigation

• Find out as much as you can about the different legislation in place in Britain regarding equal pay for men and women.

• Make a note of key dates, what the legislation states, who it helps and any other laws / groups / decisions that have followed relating to it.

• The main dates to look at are:– 1963 (USA influence)– 1970– 1975– 2003

Task 2: Reporting your findings

• Once you have found out as much as you can about each law, put this into a timeline of events, leaving space to add to this when we find out about other things.

• (You may want to do this over a couple of pages in your jotter. Also, leave space at the start for what came before the legislation)

What did you find?

• Make a class timeline

When do you think it happened?

• As a group, place the key events in the position in time that you think it happened.

• It is up to you how you want to decide where to put them, – Do you want to do it as a whole group or split

into smaller groups and take a few each?

• 1832 - Reform Act – formally prohibited women from voting.• 1833 - Factory Act – restricted work hours for women and children.• 1839 - If a marriage broke children under 7 could stay with their Mother.

Before this they had to stay with their Father.• 1857 - Matrimonial Causes Act - Women could divorce husbands who

were cruel / cheated to them or had left them. Men could file for divorce based on adultery but this was easy to fake.

• 1870 - Married Women’s Property Act – Women could keep their wages and property earned through work.

• 1880 - Education became compulsory under the age of 10.• 1882 - Married Women’s Property Act – Further to previous Act meant

that they could own and control their own property.• 1891 - Women could not be forced to live with husbands unless they

wished to.• 1897 - Women’s suffrage campaign gained momentum.• 1918 - Votes for women over 30. They had to be householders, married

or have a university degree.• 1919 - Exclusion of women from many jobs is made illegal.• 1920 - Women at Oxford University are allowed to receive degrees.• 1928 - Votes for women over 21.

• 1944 - Butler Act – created free secondary education.• 1946 - UN Commission on the Status of Women founded - a functional

commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

• 1948 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights - arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are entitled

• 1950s - First organized movement for British women’s suffrage (gaining the vote).

• 1963 - Equal Pay Act (US)• 1970 - Equal Pay Act (UK)• 1975 - Sex Discrimination Act - applies to all discrimination in the

workplace, such as, selection for a job, training, promotion, work practices, dismissal or any other disadvantage such as sexual harassment.

• 1979 – 1990 - First female Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher for the Conservative Party.

• 1994 - First women priests ordained by Church of England • 2010 - Equality Act – Consolidates all previous acts on discrimination.

Class Timeline

• Put this into a timeline in your jotter.

• Again, you may want to leave space for other things you may want to add later.

Shocking Stories!

• A table of employment gives an example of where women worked in 1900 : 

• Type of employment Number of women employed

• Domestic Servants 1,740,800 • Teachers 124,000 • Nurses 68,000 • Doctors 212 • Architects 2

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index_embed.shtml