women

TO BE CONTINUED

HISTORY

WOMEN

Women's roles in society had changed. In the early 1900s their role was to do all house cleaning and to take care of the children. A lot happened globally throughout the 1900s and their roles started to really take a change there

1912

1919

Sex Disqualification Act 1919The basic purpose of the act was to amend the Law with respect to disqualification on account of sex. Its broad aim was achieved by section 1, which stated that: “A person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society (whether incorporated by Royal Charter or otherwise), [and a person shall not be exempted by sex or marriage from the liability to serve as a juror]…”The Crown was given the power to regulate the admission of women to the civil service by Orders in Council, and judges were permitted to control the gender composition of juries.

1929

1920

After war

US: Returning veterans displaced many women in industrial work as they were encouraged to return to homemaking. Women in trade unions began to challenge both gender and race discrimination. UK: Women carried out vital war work during World War Two. Many women learned skills which helped them to find work after the war was over. Light industries such as electronics continued to grow and provided many job opportunities for women. Service industries such as banking grew and provided many jobs for women. Many women were employed in shop work. Many women found work in the new welfare services set up in the 1940s. Large numbers of women found jobs in the National Health Service. Women were paid less than men even if they did the same jobs. It was hoped in particular that women teachers and women civil servants would win equal pay, given that the 1946 report of the Royal Commission had expressly recommended this. In fact, women teachers had to wait until 1961 before they achieved equal pay. In the case of women civil servants, after mass public campaigning, including demonstrations and petitions, a scheme was introduced in 1955 to establish equal rates of pay for men and women doing equal work in the non-industrial civil service. In 1956, the Union of Post Office Workers announced to their conference that they had negotiated an agreement with the employers in which women staff had the option of either full equal pay providing they accept 'liability for all duties and attendances associated with the work' (this included night duties),, or to retain existing conditions of service and thereby obtaining 95% of male rate.

1929-39

WW2

US: When the US becomes involved in WW2 in 1941, 7 millions of women went to work for the first time while men went to war. UK: Some 25 years later, as World War Two loomed, campaigns emphasised the need for women to volunteer. It was always clear, that the conscription of women, as well as of men, was unavoidable. From spring 1941, every woman in Britain aged 18-60 had to be registered, and their family occupations were recorded. Each was interviewed, and required to choose from a range of jobs, although it was emphasised that women would not be required to bear arms. Many women, however, were eventually to work - and die - under fire. In December 1941, the National Service Act (no 2) made the conscription of women legal. At first, only single women aged 20-30 were called up, but by mid-1943, almost 90 % of single women and 80 % of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort.

During the war

1958

1968

1961

1976

In 1976 in the US, Court equalized drinking age for males and females, US military academies opened admission to women and that fathers cannot veto daughters' abortion decisions.

1983

1984

In response to planned pit closures, miners union leader Arthur Scargill ordered a strike, threatening Britain's power supply. M. Thatcher stood firm. The biggest clash was a pitched battle at Orgreave near Sheffield, where 7,000 police fought 5,000 strikers. Mrs Thatcher refused to bow under pressure. She stockpiled coal at power stations and deployed the police to break picket lines. After 12 months the miners were defeated and returned to work. The trade union movement was greatly weakened. Thatcher’s actions were supported by her party and the British Establishment. However she became a hate figure among many working class communities.LINK

Role model

21th

2004

Definitions

2016

Economic and patriotic workforce.

WW1

First woman peer to take her seat in the House of Lords.

1958

What is feminism?

The Great Depression and inter war

"Rosie theriveter"1943

1968 Strikes for equal pay

Woman in space

Oprah Winfred1954-

Margaret Thatcher1979-90

20th centuryUK & US

Margaret Bondfield1873-1953

Lady Astor1879-1964

Hilary Clintonfirst female candidate endorsed by Democrats1947-

Kamala Harrisfirst female elected vice-president in 20201964-

2020

vidéo here

Lady Astor was an American heiress who came to the UK for her second marriage. In 1919, her husband Waldorf Astor went to sit in the House of Lords. Lady Astor stood as a Conservative in his Plymouth seat and was elected MP, aged 40. She became an outspoken champion of equal rights and clashed regularly with Winston Churchill, who once remarked, “I find a woman’s intrusion into the House of Commons as embarrassing as if she burst into my bathroom when I had nothing to defend myself with”. Astor retorted, “You are not handsome enough to have worries of that kind.”

During WWI (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work’, the introduction of conscription in 1916 made the need for women workers urgent. Around this time, the government began coordinating the employment of women through campaigns and recruitment drives. Women’s employment rates increased during WWI, from 23.6% of the working age population in 1914 to between 37.7% and 46.7% in 1918 . But because women were paid less than men, there was a worry that employers would continue to employ women in these jobs even when the men returned from the war. This did not happen; either the women were sacked to make way for the returning soldiers or women remained working alongside men but at lower wage rates. But even before the end of the war, many women refused to accept lower pay for what in most cases was the same work as had been done previously by men. The women workers on London buses and trams went on strike in 1918 to demand the same increase in pay (war bonus) as men. The strike spread to other towns in the South East and to the London Underground. This was the first equal pay strike in the UK which was initiated, led and ultimately won by women. Picture credit: Women munition workers sorting shells during the First World War, TUC Collections, London Metropolitan University. Poster, London, 1912

Margaret Bondfield was from a working-class family in Somerset and started her career in a draper’s shop, aged 14. Having experienced often shocking working conditions, she became a union representative when union membership was heavily frowned upon (sourciller). After many years championing women’s organisations, she was elected Labour MP for Northampton in 1923. She was appointed to Ramsay MacDonald’s cabinet in 1929 as minister for labour but her success was short-lived. She lost her seat in the general election of 1931 and never returned to Parliament.

USA: In the 1930s, The Great Depression creates economic hard-ship, with unemployment, poverty and unrest. Women who are employed face resentment for "stealing" men's work. 1932- Federal Economy Act forbids more than one family member working for the government, causins many women to lose their jobs. 1937 Federal Econmy Act had been enforced. UK: Women were better educated as a result of the Education Acts of 1902 and 1918. There were more job opportunities for women in the 1920's and 1930's due to better education. Many women found work as clerks, teachers and nurses. Industries changed. Many women found work in the new light industries e.g. making electrical goods. The Sex Disqualification Act of 1919 made it easier for women to go to university and enter the professions. Middle class women benefited from increased job opportunities. The Marriage Bar prevented many women from staying at work after marriage. But, the civil service (fonction publique) did not allow women to work after marriage. Working conditions in the home remained very hard. Cleaning, washing and cooking took up a great deal of time. New electrical appliances such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners slightly improved the working conditions of housewives in the 1930s. By the 1930s about one third of women in Britain worked outside the home. One tenth of married women worked.

In the face of acute wartime labor shortages, women were needed : -in the defense industries, -the civilian service, -and even the Armed Forces. Despite the continuing 20th century trend of women entering the workforce, publicity campaigns were aimed at those women who had never before held jobs. Poster and film images glorified and glamorized the roles of working women and suggested that a woman`s femininity need not be sacrificed. Whether fulfilling their duty in the home, factory, office, or military, women were portrayed as attractive confident, and resolved to do their part to win the war. Recruitment posters showed women as glamorous and independent, and images of women, especially in uniform, were used to sell everything from cigarettes to shoes. In the cinema, women were usually depicted as practical and capable - and those who moaned were usually dead by the end of the film.

1968 STRIKES (UK) The Labour Party's election pledge may have been prompted by its desire to join the European Economic Community (EEC) so that it would be in compliance with the Treaty of Rome's clause requiring member states to adopt the principle of equal pay for women. However, the application was rejected and thus the Wilson government shelved the issue. Equal pay may have been forgotten for another decade or two were it not for the action of women trade unionists - this time in the private sector. In 1968, women sewing machinists at Ford's Dagenham Factory went on strike over a re-grading demand. Clearly this was not a case of women doing the same work as the men, although their argument was that it required equal skill. This led to a number of other equal pay strikes and the formation by women trade unionists and others of the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women's Equal Rights (NJACCWER). A huge groundswell of protest against government and trade union inaction began to manifest itself. Most unions by this time had declared forcefully in favour of equal pay and appeared to be keen to do something at long last for their women members. May 1969 saw a massive equal pay demonstration. Barbara Castle, the Employment Secretary, in order to forestall further unrest, decided to introduce the Equal Pay Act of 1970. This permitted equal pay claims to be made from women in the public and private sectors if they were engaged in the same or broadly similar work. However, although the Act was passed in May 1970, it was not implemented until January 1976, thus allowing employers just over five years in which to make 'adjustments'. Basically this meant that they had nearly six years to re-grade jobs in discriminatory ways thus rendering them immune from the very limited scope of the act.

The Pill gave women unprecedented control over their fertility, and it did not interfere with spontaneity or sensation. For the first time, sex became an act that women could enjoy on an equal footing with men. TIMELINE: 1954 Dr Gregory Pincus and Dr John Rock begin trials on 50 women of the drug that would later be called Enovid, the first oral contraceptive pill. 1957 It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1957, but officially is only licensed to treat medical problems, not for use as a contraceptive. 1960 The FDA allows Enovid to be sold as a contraceptive pill. 1961 The pill is first licensed in the UK. 1965 The supreme court (US) ruled that married couples can use birth control 1967 12.5 million women worldwide use the Pill. In UK The Abortion act was passed. 1966 Lyndon B Johnson's administration approved first federal family planning funding. (US) 1968 On 25 July, Pope Paul VI condemns the use of artificial contraception in an encyclical, Humanae Vitae. 1984 Emergency hormonal contraception (known as the "morning-after pill"), which can prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after intercourse has taken place, is licensed for use in the UK. Health campaigns in the 1970s urged people to get contraception advice

Sally Kristen Ride (1951 – 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the 3rd woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32Dr. Helen Patricia Sharman (born in 1963) is a British chemist who became the first British astronaut and the first woman to visit the Mir space station in 1991. The Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts launched on 18 May 1991 and lasted eight days, most of that time spent at the Mir space station. Sharman's tasks included medical and agricultural test, photographing the British Isles, and participating in an unlicensed amateur radio hookup with British schoolchildren.

LINK

Baroness Swanborough: first woman peer to take her seat in the House of Lords.By 1958, with a woman sitting on the throne, the establishment was under increasing pressure to modernise. On 21 October, Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading and Baroness Swanborough, became the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords as a result of the recently passed Life Peerages Act. She was an indomitable woman, heavily involved in charitable works throughout her life, including founding the Women's Voluntary Service just before World War Two. Three other women peers also took their seats in the Lords in 1958.

UK: The Civil Partnership Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government, giving same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government. The Act gives transsexual people legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender (male or female) allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate, affording them full recognition of their acquired sex in law for all purposes, including marriage US: Since 2003, sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex as well as same-sex adolescents of a close age has been legal nationwide, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 2015, all states license and recognize marriage between same-sex couples on account of the Supreme Court decision. However, the United States still lacks a federal law outlawing discrimination nationwide, leaving many states without any protections from discrimination, other than from federal executive orders which are more limited in scope than from protections through federal legislation.

Oprah Winfrey is being described as the most powerful and influential woman in the world for many years especially when she was involved in the 2008 presidential campaign. In the article, “Oprah Worth a million votes to Obama?”, Brian Stelter included a numerical evidence counted by the economists Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Moore showing that after Oprah endorsed Obama and showed up on the campaign, Obama’s voting expanded from 423,123 to 1,596,995. Celebrities should have the power and are willing to help others. “She is also an activist. In the early 1990s, motivated in part by her own memories of child abuse, Winfrey led a campaign to establish a database of convicted child abusers. It became a reality when President Clinton signed the Oprah Bill into law in 1993. Through her private charity, Winfrey has awarded hundreds of grants that support the education of women in the United States and around the world” In 1999, Time magazine included Winfrey on its inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in the world; she has since appeared six times on the Time 100 list-more often than any other individual. No longer labeled a mere talk-show host, Winfrey has been proclaimed a “prophet,” an “inspirational phenomenon”, and “almost a religion”. The synergy of her talk show, book club, Web site, magazine, radio channel, personal growth tours, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and forthcoming cable TV network have made Winfrey not only one of the “most trusted brand names” in America but also “The Queen of All Media,” as Forbes put it in ranking her 234 on its list of world billionaires source: How does Oprah Winfrey influence the society? By Yuxin Dai , 2015

WOMEN AND WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURYAlthough there was a temporary halt in the growth of women's employment in the early 1980s, it is clear that women in 2011, now 50% of the labour force, are a vital and permanent part of social production. However, the expansion of women's jobs (indeed jobs of all kinds) is based on a much narrower range of employment, reflecting the chronic decline in British manufacturing industry. So, for women and for black people- already the victims of job segregation- the expansion of the labour market in the new millennium will mean more of the same: low paid and low status jobs, the majority of which will be temporary, part-time or casual. The preponderance of such contractual arrangements is frequently justified in the name of 'flexibility' and they are commended to women as being 'family friendly'. In fact the opposite is true. Uncertainty about a regular source of income, together with poverty wages and lack of affordable child care, increases the burden on women and perpetuates a cycle of deprivation. The establishment of a national minimum wage is welcome, but set at the rate dictated by the interests of capital, it will do nothing to resolve the widening gap between rich and poor in Britain, a gap which has reached the highest level recorded since the Second World War, resulting in an increase in the number of workers (nearly 3 million, mostly part-time) earning less than the threshold for National Insurance contributions. Women are twice as likely to be low paid as men. It is in this context that we must view government's drive to get women off benefit and into work- a policy that would be laudable were it not clear that their (as other governments before and doubtless after) intention is to maintain the status of women workers as a source of cheap labour. But we must also note that the growth of poverty pay (below the National Insurance threshold).

FEMINISM: Feminism is a broad concept taht encompasses many definitions and goals. Definitions of feminism could be: 1- Challenging the power structure between len and women, seeing men and women as groups rather than individuals 2- Rebelling against power structure, institutions, laws, or social conventions that maintain women as subordonate, powerless or second-class citizens 3- Arguing against division of labor that values men and devalues women 4- Working as a collective to fight for women's rights in all facets of modern life. 5- Demanding full rights for all women and men. Feminism has severals goals: 1- Provide multiple narratives of women's history 2- View "sex" and "gender" as fluid instead of fixed, social instead of biological 3- Fight for equality 4- Make both men and women awareeof gender inequality 5- Critique the institutions that support patriarchy 6- Encourage choice in multiple arenas 7- Include sexuality at the forefront of women's issues 8- Accept multiple forms of feminism and continually revise it and its aims.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential candidate nominated by a major party, namely the Democrats. She is the first woman to win the popular vote in a United States presidential election.

Fashion and freedomTrousers made quite an impact on women's fashion ©Military styling and lines influenced fashions at the start of the war. Women often wore trousers, or a one-piece siren suit (so-called because it could be pulled on quickly when an air raid warning siren sounded). Headgear became practical, seen as a means of keeping hair out of the way rather than as a fashion statement. Large handbags - to carry all the family's ration books - were also practical rather than fashionable accessories. Knitting became a national female obsession. Various schemes gave advice on recycling or making clothes last longer, two of these were the Make Do and Mend, and Sew and Save, schemes. Leading designers worked on the Utility scheme, aiming to make the best use of materials to produce functional clothing. Hair was worn long, but off the face. As war drew to a close, women adopted the 'Victory Roll', where the hair was rolled up tightly, fixed in place, and topped with a swept-up curl. Longer hair, like red lipstick, was thought to add to a woman's glamour. The popular wisdom was that such feminine touches boosted morale, both for women and for the men around them. The practical demands of wartime changed social customs beyond all recognition. People enjoyed far greater social freedom than before, with more opportunities for encounters with members of the opposite sex, and a sense that normal rules did not apply in the face of so much imminent danger.

• 1918: Representation of the People's Act allows women over 30 to vote
• 1928: Women over 21 get the vote

A century ago, British women still did not have the vote and violent protests by the suffragettes were escalating. Frustrated by the lack of reform at the start of the 20th Century, hundreds of suffragettes were jailed after taking part in protests. Until 1912 the campaigning was largely within the law, mainly chaining themselves to railings and disturbing the peace. But activism grew to include planting bombs, smashing shop windows and acts of arson.

TO BE CONTINUED

HISTORY

WOMEN

Women's roles in society had changed. In the early 1900s their role was to do all house cleaning and to take care of the children. A lot happened globally throughout the 1900s and their roles started to really take a change there

1912

1919

Sex Disqualification Act 1919The basic purpose of the act was to amend the Law with respect to disqualification on account of sex. Its broad aim was achieved by section 1, which stated that: “A person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society (whether incorporated by Royal Charter or otherwise), [and a person shall not be exempted by sex or marriage from the liability to serve as a juror]…”The Crown was given the power to regulate the admission of women to the civil service by Orders in Council, and judges were permitted to control the gender composition of juries.

1929

1920

After war

US: Returning veterans displaced many women in industrial work as they were encouraged to return to homemaking. Women in trade unions began to challenge both gender and race discrimination. UK: Women carried out vital war work during World War Two. Many women learned skills which helped them to find work after the war was over. Light industries such as electronics continued to grow and provided many job opportunities for women. Service industries such as banking grew and provided many jobs for women. Many women were employed in shop work. Many women found work in the new welfare services set up in the 1940s. Large numbers of women found jobs in the National Health Service. Women were paid less than men even if they did the same jobs. It was hoped in particular that women teachers and women civil servants would win equal pay, given that the 1946 report of the Royal Commission had expressly recommended this. In fact, women teachers had to wait until 1961 before they achieved equal pay. In the case of women civil servants, after mass public campaigning, including demonstrations and petitions, a scheme was introduced in 1955 to establish equal rates of pay for men and women doing equal work in the non-industrial civil service. In 1956, the Union of Post Office Workers announced to their conference that they had negotiated an agreement with the employers in which women staff had the option of either full equal pay providing they accept 'liability for all duties and attendances associated with the work' (this included night duties),, or to retain existing conditions of service and thereby obtaining 95% of male rate.

1929-39

WW2

US: When the US becomes involved in WW2 in 1941, 7 millions of women went to work for the first time while men went to war. UK: Some 25 years later, as World War Two loomed, campaigns emphasised the need for women to volunteer. It was always clear, that the conscription of women, as well as of men, was unavoidable. From spring 1941, every woman in Britain aged 18-60 had to be registered, and their family occupations were recorded. Each was interviewed, and required to choose from a range of jobs, although it was emphasised that women would not be required to bear arms. Many women, however, were eventually to work - and die - under fire. In December 1941, the National Service Act (no 2) made the conscription of women legal. At first, only single women aged 20-30 were called up, but by mid-1943, almost 90 % of single women and 80 % of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort.

During the war

1958

1968

1961

1976

In 1976 in the US, Court equalized drinking age for males and females, US military academies opened admission to women and that fathers cannot veto daughters' abortion decisions.

1983

1984

In response to planned pit closures, miners union leader Arthur Scargill ordered a strike, threatening Britain's power supply. M. Thatcher stood firm. The biggest clash was a pitched battle at Orgreave near Sheffield, where 7,000 police fought 5,000 strikers. Mrs Thatcher refused to bow under pressure. She stockpiled coal at power stations and deployed the police to break picket lines. After 12 months the miners were defeated and returned to work. The trade union movement was greatly weakened. Thatcher’s actions were supported by her party and the British Establishment. However she became a hate figure among many working class communities.LINK

Role model

21th

2004

Definitions

2016

Economic and patriotic workforce.

WW1

First woman peer to take her seat in the House of Lords.

1958

What is feminism?

The Great Depression and inter war

"Rosie theriveter"1943

1968 Strikes for equal pay

Woman in space

Oprah Winfred1954-

Margaret Thatcher1979-90

20th centuryUK & US

Lady Astor1879-1964

Margaret Bondfield1873-1953

Hilary Clintonfirst female candidate endorsed by Democrats1947-

Lady Astor was an American heiress who came to the UK for her second marriage. In 1919, her husband Waldorf Astor went to sit in the House of Lords. Lady Astor stood as a Conservative in his Plymouth seat and was elected MP, aged 40. She became an outspoken champion of equal rights and clashed regularly with Winston Churchill, who once remarked, “I find a woman’s intrusion into the House of Commons as embarrassing as if she burst into my bathroom when I had nothing to defend myself with”. Astor retorted, “You are not handsome enough to have worries of that kind.”

During WWI (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work’, the introduction of conscription in 1916 made the need for women workers urgent. Around this time, the government began coordinating the employment of women through campaigns and recruitment drives. Women’s employment rates increased during WWI, from 23.6% of the working age population in 1914 to between 37.7% and 46.7% in 1918 . But because women were paid less than men, there was a worry that employers would continue to employ women in these jobs even when the men returned from the war. This did not happen; either the women were sacked to make way for the returning soldiers or women remained working alongside men but at lower wage rates. But even before the end of the war, many women refused to accept lower pay for what in most cases was the same work as had been done previously by men. The women workers on London buses and trams went on strike in 1918 to demand the same increase in pay (war bonus) as men. The strike spread to other towns in the South East and to the London Underground. This was the first equal pay strike in the UK which was initiated, led and ultimately won by women. Picture credit: Women munition workers sorting shells during the First World War, TUC Collections, London Metropolitan University. Poster, London, 1912

Margaret Bondfield was from a working-class family in Somerset and started her career in a draper’s shop, aged 14. Having experienced often shocking working conditions, she became a union representative when union membership was heavily frowned upon (sourciller). After many years championing women’s organisations, she was elected Labour MP for Northampton in 1923. She was appointed to Ramsay MacDonald’s cabinet in 1929 as minister for labour but her success was short-lived. She lost her seat in the general election of 1931 and never returned to Parliament.

USA: In the 1930s, The Great Depression creates economic hard-ship, with unemployment, poverty and unrest. Women who are employed face resentment for "stealing" men's work. 1932- Federal Economy Act forbids more than one family member working for the government, causins many women to lose their jobs. 1937 Federal Econmy Act had been enforced. UK: Women were better educated as a result of the Education Acts of 1902 and 1918. There were more job opportunities for women in the 1920's and 1930's due to better education. Many women found work as clerks, teachers and nurses. Industries changed. Many women found work in the new light industries e.g. making electrical goods. The Sex Disqualification Act of 1919 made it easier for women to go to university and enter the professions. Middle class women benefited from increased job opportunities. The Marriage Bar prevented many women from staying at work after marriage. But, the civil service (fonction publique) did not allow women to work after marriage. Working conditions in the home remained very hard. Cleaning, washing and cooking took up a great deal of time. New electrical appliances such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners slightly improved the working conditions of housewives in the 1930s. By the 1930s about one third of women in Britain worked outside the home. One tenth of married women worked.

In the face of acute wartime labor shortages, women were needed : -in the defense industries, -the civilian service, -and even the Armed Forces. Despite the continuing 20th century trend of women entering the workforce, publicity campaigns were aimed at those women who had never before held jobs. Poster and film images glorified and glamorized the roles of working women and suggested that a woman`s femininity need not be sacrificed. Whether fulfilling their duty in the home, factory, office, or military, women were portrayed as attractive confident, and resolved to do their part to win the war. Recruitment posters showed women as glamorous and independent, and images of women, especially in uniform, were used to sell everything from cigarettes to shoes. In the cinema, women were usually depicted as practical and capable - and those who moaned were usually dead by the end of the film.

1968 STRIKES (UK) The Labour Party's election pledge may have been prompted by its desire to join the European Economic Community (EEC) so that it would be in compliance with the Treaty of Rome's clause requiring member states to adopt the principle of equal pay for women. However, the application was rejected and thus the Wilson government shelved the issue. Equal pay may have been forgotten for another decade or two were it not for the action of women trade unionists - this time in the private sector. In 1968, women sewing machinists at Ford's Dagenham Factory went on strike over a re-grading demand. Clearly this was not a case of women doing the same work as the men, although their argument was that it required equal skill. This led to a number of other equal pay strikes and the formation by women trade unionists and others of the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women's Equal Rights (NJACCWER). A huge groundswell of protest against government and trade union inaction began to manifest itself. Most unions by this time had declared forcefully in favour of equal pay and appeared to be keen to do something at long last for their women members. May 1969 saw a massive equal pay demonstration. Barbara Castle, the Employment Secretary, in order to forestall further unrest, decided to introduce the Equal Pay Act of 1970. This permitted equal pay claims to be made from women in the public and private sectors if they were engaged in the same or broadly similar work. However, although the Act was passed in May 1970, it was not implemented until January 1976, thus allowing employers just over five years in which to make 'adjustments'. Basically this meant that they had nearly six years to re-grade jobs in discriminatory ways thus rendering them immune from the very limited scope of the act.

The Pill gave women unprecedented control over their fertility, and it did not interfere with spontaneity or sensation. For the first time, sex became an act that women could enjoy on an equal footing with men. TIMELINE: 1954 Dr Gregory Pincus and Dr John Rock begin trials on 50 women of the drug that would later be called Enovid, the first oral contraceptive pill. 1957 It is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1957, but officially is only licensed to treat medical problems, not for use as a contraceptive. 1960 The FDA allows Enovid to be sold as a contraceptive pill. 1961 The pill is first licensed in the UK. 1965 The supreme court (US) ruled that married couples can use birth control 1967 12.5 million women worldwide use the Pill. In UK The Abortion act was passed. 1966 Lyndon B Johnson's administration approved first federal family planning funding. (US) 1968 On 25 July, Pope Paul VI condemns the use of artificial contraception in an encyclical, Humanae Vitae. 1984 Emergency hormonal contraception (known as the "morning-after pill"), which can prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after intercourse has taken place, is licensed for use in the UK. Health campaigns in the 1970s urged people to get contraception advice

Sally Kristen Ride (1951 – 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the 3rd woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32Dr. Helen Patricia Sharman (born in 1963) is a British chemist who became the first British astronaut and the first woman to visit the Mir space station in 1991. The Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts launched on 18 May 1991 and lasted eight days, most of that time spent at the Mir space station. Sharman's tasks included medical and agricultural test, photographing the British Isles, and participating in an unlicensed amateur radio hookup with British schoolchildren.

LINK

Baroness Swanborough: first woman peer to take her seat in the House of Lords.By 1958, with a woman sitting on the throne, the establishment was under increasing pressure to modernise. On 21 October, Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading and Baroness Swanborough, became the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords as a result of the recently passed Life Peerages Act. She was an indomitable woman, heavily involved in charitable works throughout her life, including founding the Women's Voluntary Service just before World War Two. Three other women peers also took their seats in the Lords in 1958.

UK: The Civil Partnership Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government, giving same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government. The Act gives transsexual people legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender (male or female) allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate, affording them full recognition of their acquired sex in law for all purposes, including marriage US: Since 2003, sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex as well as same-sex adolescents of a close age has been legal nationwide, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 2015, all states license and recognize marriage between same-sex couples on account of the Supreme Court decision. However, the United States still lacks a federal law outlawing discrimination nationwide, leaving many states without any protections from discrimination, other than from federal executive orders which are more limited in scope than from protections through federal legislation.

Oprah Winfrey is being described as the most powerful and influential woman in the world for many years especially when she was involved in the 2008 presidential campaign. In the article, “Oprah Worth a million votes to Obama?”, Brian Stelter included a numerical evidence counted by the economists Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Moore showing that after Oprah endorsed Obama and showed up on the campaign, Obama’s voting expanded from 423,123 to 1,596,995. Celebrities should have the power and are willing to help others. “She is also an activist. In the early 1990s, motivated in part by her own memories of child abuse, Winfrey led a campaign to establish a database of convicted child abusers. It became a reality when President Clinton signed the Oprah Bill into law in 1993. Through her private charity, Winfrey has awarded hundreds of grants that support the education of women in the United States and around the world” In 1999, Time magazine included Winfrey on its inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in the world; she has since appeared six times on the Time 100 list-more often than any other individual. No longer labeled a mere talk-show host, Winfrey has been proclaimed a “prophet,” an “inspirational phenomenon”, and “almost a religion”. The synergy of her talk show, book club, Web site, magazine, radio channel, personal growth tours, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and forthcoming cable TV network have made Winfrey not only one of the “most trusted brand names” in America but also “The Queen of All Media,” as Forbes put it in ranking her 234 on its list of world billionaires source: How does Oprah Winfrey influence the society? By Yuxin Dai , 2015

WOMEN AND WORK IN THE 21ST CENTURYAlthough there was a temporary halt in the growth of women's employment in the early 1980s, it is clear that women in 2011, now 50% of the labour force, are a vital and permanent part of social production. However, the expansion of women's jobs (indeed jobs of all kinds) is based on a much narrower range of employment, reflecting the chronic decline in British manufacturing industry. So, for women and for black people- already the victims of job segregation- the expansion of the labour market in the new millennium will mean more of the same: low paid and low status jobs, the majority of which will be temporary, part-time or casual. The preponderance of such contractual arrangements is frequently justified in the name of 'flexibility' and they are commended to women as being 'family friendly'. In fact the opposite is true. Uncertainty about a regular source of income, together with poverty wages and lack of affordable child care, increases the burden on women and perpetuates a cycle of deprivation. The establishment of a national minimum wage is welcome, but set at the rate dictated by the interests of capital, it will do nothing to resolve the widening gap between rich and poor in Britain, a gap which has reached the highest level recorded since the Second World War, resulting in an increase in the number of workers (nearly 3 million, mostly part-time) earning less than the threshold for National Insurance contributions. Women are twice as likely to be low paid as men. It is in this context that we must view government's drive to get women off benefit and into work- a policy that would be laudable were it not clear that their (as other governments before and doubtless after) intention is to maintain the status of women workers as a source of cheap labour. But we must also note that the growth of poverty pay (below the National Insurance threshold).

FEMINISM: Feminism is a broad concept taht encompasses many definitions and goals. Definitions of feminism could be: 1- Challenging the power structure between len and women, seeing men and women as groups rather than individuals 2- Rebelling against power structure, institutions, laws, or social conventions that maintain women as subordonate, powerless or second-class citizens 3- Arguing against division of labor that values men and devalues women 4- Working as a collective to fight for women's rights in all facets of modern life. 5- Demanding full rights for all women and men. Feminism has severals goals: 1- Provide multiple narratives of women's history 2- View "sex" and "gender" as fluid instead of fixed, social instead of biological 3- Fight for equality 4- Make both men and women awareeof gender inequality 5- Critique the institutions that support patriarchy 6- Encourage choice in multiple arenas 7- Include sexuality at the forefront of women's issues 8- Accept multiple forms of feminism and continually revise it and its aims.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential candidate nominated by a major party, namely the Democrats. She is the first woman to win the popular vote in a United States presidential election.

Fashion and freedomTrousers made quite an impact on women's fashion ©Military styling and lines influenced fashions at the start of the war. Women often wore trousers, or a one-piece siren suit (so-called because it could be pulled on quickly when an air raid warning siren sounded). Headgear became practical, seen as a means of keeping hair out of the way rather than as a fashion statement. Large handbags - to carry all the family's ration books - were also practical rather than fashionable accessories. Knitting became a national female obsession. Various schemes gave advice on recycling or making clothes last longer, two of these were the Make Do and Mend, and Sew and Save, schemes. Leading designers worked on the Utility scheme, aiming to make the best use of materials to produce functional clothing. Hair was worn long, but off the face. As war drew to a close, women adopted the 'Victory Roll', where the hair was rolled up tightly, fixed in place, and topped with a swept-up curl. Longer hair, like red lipstick, was thought to add to a woman's glamour. The popular wisdom was that such feminine touches boosted morale, both for women and for the men around them. The practical demands of wartime changed social customs beyond all recognition. People enjoyed far greater social freedom than before, with more opportunities for encounters with members of the opposite sex, and a sense that normal rules did not apply in the face of so much imminent danger.

• 1918: Representation of the People's Act allows women over 30 to vote
• 1928: Women over 21 get the vote

A century ago, British women still did not have the vote and violent protests by the suffragettes were escalating. Frustrated by the lack of reform at the start of the 20th Century, hundreds of suffragettes were jailed after taking part in protests. Until 1912 the campaigning was largely within the law, mainly chaining themselves to railings and disturbing the peace. But activism grew to include planting bombs, smashing shop windows and acts of arson.