In the current climate of #metoo, #timesup, the BBC Gender pay gap and The Presidents Club event you’d be forgiven for thinking that there has never been any progress in gender equality or that we’re at least taking a huge step back. But today marks the 100 year anniversary of when a portion of British women got the vote for the first time. I say a portion because 1918 was the year women over the age of 30 got the vote, we had to wait another ten years until 1928 for women to gain a completely equal vote to men. But to even get to the stage of women over 30 getting the vote amazing women had to give up their lives and freedom to make the world more equal for the greater good. Something we can all continue to do today.
Granted since 1918 the progress has been stilted and slow at times but the more I’ve looked into gender equality and women’s rights today the more amazed I’ve been how long it’s taken to even get to the stage we are at now. Just take a look at the timeline below, some of us may have had the vote in 1918 but it took until 1970 for the Equal Pay Act to come into law, and we all know that’s still not necessarily adhered to. This timeline is greatly reduced but includes the moments of recent history that I was most shocked and amazed by, how can rape in marriage only have been made a crime in 1994, within my life time?
1918 – Women over 30 are granted the right to vote in Britain
1922 – The Law of Property Act allows both husband and wife to inherit property equally
1928 – All women in Britain gain equal voting rights with men
1948 – The introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) gives everyone free access to health care. Previously, only the insured, usually men, benefited
1956 – In Britain, legal reforms say that women teachers and civil servants should receive equal pay
1970 – Passing of the Equal Pay Act
1975 – The Employment Protection Act introduces statutory maternity provision and makes it illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant
1980 – Women can apply for a loan or credit in their own names
1990 – For the first time, married women are taxed separately from their husbands
1994 – Rape in marriage is made a crime after 15 years of serious campaigning by women’s organisations
1998 – The European Union passes the Human Rights Act, guaranteeing basic principles of life for everyone
2004 – Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act makes common assault an arrestable offence
2016 – Women in England, Scotland and Wales still need the approval of 2 doctors before they can get an abortion. Women in N Ireland can only have an abortion if they are at risk of dying
(thanks to https://www.mmu.ac.uk/equality-and-diversity/doc/gender-equality-timeline.pdf and https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=45a5a7f5-ffbd-4078-b0b7-4bfcccab159d for these details)
We owe it to the women before us and the future generations to continue their work. Not using feminism and the fight for equality as a reason to berate every man who crosses our path or to decide for other women what their choice is whether it be in profession, views on home life or dress style but by pulling together as a sisterhood. We all know we can be catty and bitchy to each other and can often do at least as much damage to each other as men do to us. So let’s reach out and support each other. Support each other in our choice of work, women have as much right to be a model as a doctor as long as there is choice and education supporting that decision. In the same way as a man has as much right to be a nurse or a beautician. The traditional gender assigned roles need to be making way for the idea of choice, that in my eyes is equality. Support women in the language we use, instead of victim of sexual assault, try survivor of sexual assault, let’s empower ourselves not act into the box of the downtrodden.
Of course in order to have choice there is still plenty of work to be done for there to be an even playing field to choose on but maybe by beginning to change our ways of talking, living and fighting that can begin to happen. It’s not going to be easy but I honestly believe the more we work with our sisters to produce a united the front the more easily a united equality movement of men and women fighting for the same rights will be able to happen.
So I’m going to leave that there as my stream of consciousness, what started as a walk home from the station pondering an Instagram post has become an afternoon of research and reading. A lot of angst and shocking discoveries but ultimately I feel a little bit of hope. Let’s use the impetus from the #metoo and #timesup movement and today’s amazing anniversary to maybe make the small changes below.
– educating ourselves and others, including our men, on what needs to change and how it can
– drawing our girlfriends into the tightest groups we’ve ever been in and using that power to make even the smallest changes
– talking about issues and how we can help make changes
– being the most involved in politics we can possibly be, lobby, vote, make your voice heard. Women died for your right to do exactly that
– focusing on what we want to achieve and going and getting it regardless of what others opinions are
– and support, support, support each other
There’s obviously a lot of work to do but the more noise we make about all aspects of equality and discrimination, the more we read, the more we protest and the more visible we make ourselves it surely has to make a difference? I don’t in anyway have the answers and obviously this is my opinion but just writing this has crystallised that I could do so much more and maybe reading does the same for you
If you’re looking for some further inspiration or some practical ideas to help the below charities are amazing and are worth checking out for petitions, marches, fundraising and volunteering
https://www.womenforwomen.org.uk/
https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/