History of Women in the Workplace

By Monster Contributor

Monster has put together an Infographic to show the history of women in the workplace. Starting from 1870 when the Married Women’s Property Act was introduced allowing married women keep their own earnings, through to 2018 where UK companies larger than 250 people will have to publish their gender pay gaps by April.

Take a look at the timeline below. (Click the image to make it bigger)

1870 – the Married Women’s Property Act was introduced allowing married women keep their own earnings

1880 – the University of London became the first British university to award degrees to women

1918 – women received the right to vote in the UK

1919 – Britain introduced the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act allowing women to become lawyers, vets and civil servants. The Women's Engineering Society was also formed and Britain got its first female MP, Nancy Astor

1955 - Barbara Mandell became the first woman newsreader on British TV

1968 – 187 female employees at Ford’s Dagenham plant went on strike protesting for equal pay for women. This led to the introduction of the Equal Pay Act of 1970

1973 - women are allowed to join the London Stock Exchange

1975 – the first piece of maternity legislation was introduced in the UK, the Employment Protection Act. However, it didn’t offer leave to all women due to the long qualifying periods

1975 - the Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in employment, education and training. It also allowed women to take out a current account in their name, as well as apply for a credit card or loan

1979 – the UK welcomes its first ever female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher

1986 – Statutory Maternity Pay Regulations were first introduced providing women with statutory maternity pay

1993 – following the introduction of a European Directive, all working women in the UK were entitled to statutory maternity leave and pay

1997 –Marjorie Scardino became the first CEO of a FTSE 100 company, Pearson. In 2013, Marjorie became the first female director to join the board of Twitter following a controversy around the lack of diversity on its board

2010 – the introduction of the Equality At 2010 stated that it was illegal for women to be harassed or bullied in the workplace

2014 – flexible working laws were introduced allowing more ease around childcare

2015 – Shared Parental Leave came into force allowing fathers to take paid leave following the birth or adoption of a child and allowing more mothers the choice to return to work sooner

2017 – 30 hours per week of free childcare was introduced to make returning to work easier

2018 – UK companies larger than 250 people will have to publish their gender pay gaps by April