WOMEN’S LEGAL LANDMARKS:CELEBRATING FEMINIST LEGAL HISTORYErika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty

Women’s legal history in the UK and Ireland is full of landmarks,turning points in law’s response to women’s lives andexperiences. 2019 marks the centenary of women’s formal entryinto the legal profession. This was a key legal landmark forwomen. But it was not the first. Nor was it the last. Feminists havelong had recourse to law as a key means of achieving equality.From ‘Votes for Women’ to #repealthe8th, the East End of Londonto Greenham Common, whether it has involved Sunday morningkidnappings, cows on Chiswick High Road, marital property,family allowances, tax reform, women bishops or image-basedsexual abuse, women, feminists and women-led organisations

have been there campaigning and making the arguments forchange.

The Women’s Legal Landmarks Project was a uniqueinterdisciplinary collaboration involving feminist scholarsengaging in the process of ‘landmarking’ key legal events,cases and statutes for women in the UK and Ireland. Byidentifying and celebrating the legal landmarks for women thathave been – and continue to be – significant in women’s fightfor justice and equality, we are able to reflect on how farwomen have come – and still have to go.

1919 Sex Disqualification(Removal) Act 1919 enabledwomen to enter the legalprofession and to become JPs.

1928 DPP v Jonathan Capeand Leopold Hill (the Well ofLoneliness trial) marked a highpoint of the legal and socialvisibility of lesbianism, withdiscussion extending beyondthe courtroom into dailynewspapers.

1944 Education Act 1944abolished the so-calledmarriage bar – a practice thathad been an obstacle to theemployment of married womenteachers.

1948 British Nationality Act1948 allowed a British woman toretain her nationality when shemarried a foreign man.

c. 940 Cyfraith Hywel (TheLaws of Hywel Dda) advancedand recognised the rights ofwomen in medieval Wales.

*1792: A Vindication of theRights of Woman by MaryWollstonecraft called forequality and for the extensionof civil and political rights towomen

1854 A Brief Summary ofthe Most Important LawConcerning Women byBarbara Leigh Smith Bodichon offered a concise,unadulterated account of themain provisions governing thelegal status of women.

1918 Representation of thePeople Act 1918 gave theParliamentary vote to all menover 21 and women over 30 whomet (or whose husband met)minimum property qualifications.

1918 Maternity and ChildWelfare Act 1918 introducedarrangements for attending tothe health of expectant andnursing mothers, and forchildren under five years of age,in England and Wales.

1919 Article 7 of theCovenant of the League ofNations stated that itsSecretariat would be open toboth women and men.

1958 Life Peerages Act 1958provided for the appointment ofwomen as life peers enablingwomen to sit in the House ofLords for the first time.

1964 Married Women’sProperty Act 1964 enabled awife to share housekeepingmoney (and any propertyderived from that money) equallywith her husband, allowingmarried women withoutindependent income to acquiretheir own money.

1967 Abortion Act 1967allowed women in England andWales and Scotland to have atermination in certain definedcircumstances.

1975 Sex Discrimination Act1975 protected women and menfrom discrimination ‘on thegrounds of sex’ and, in certaininstances, marital status.

1976 Opening of the firstRape Crisis Centre

1976 Sexual Offences(Amendment) Act 1976, s 4provided anonymity for rapecomplainants.

1977 Housing (HomelessPersons) Act 1977 enabledwomen to make a direct andlegally enforceable claim uponthe state when tfacing a housingcrisis.

1985 Prohibition of FemaleCircumcision Act 1985 made ita criminal offence to practice, or aid and abet the practice of,FGM, except for specificmedical purposes.

1988 Finance Act 1988, s 32ensured that the income of awoman living with her husbandwas not treated as his incomefor income tax purposes.

1995 Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995removed the ban on divorcefrom the Irish Constitution.

1999 Youth Justice andCriminal Evidence Act 1999, s 41 excluded evidence andquestions on a complainant’ssexual history unless specificrequirements were met.

1999 Islam v Secretary ofState for the Home Department;R v Immigration Appeal Tribunaland Another, ex parte Shahrecognised gender as aprotected characteristic andwomen as a particular socialgroup within the meaning of theUnited Nations ConventionRelating to the Status ofRefugees (1951).

2015 Violence AgainstWomen, Domestic Abuse andSexual Violence (Wales) Act2015 was the first legislation inthe United Kingdom to explicitlyand specifically addressviolence against women asopposed to ‘domestic violence’generally.

2016 Abusive Behaviour andSexual Harm (Scotland) Act2016, s 2 criminalised someforms of image-based sexualabuse.

WOMEN’S LEGAL LANDMARKS

c. 940 1900 1950 1975 1985 1995 2005 2018

1857 Matrimonial CausesAct 1857 gave women inEngland and Wales legalstanding to use the civil courtsto seek a decree of divorce ornullity.

1882 Married Women’sProperty Act 1882 enabled amarried woman to hold,acquire and dispose of herproperty.

1888 Match Women’s Strikeat the Bryant and May factoryin Bow, East London,advanced women’s claims to afair wage and better conditionsof work.

2017 Appointment of thefirst Woman President ofthe UK Supreme Court,Brenda Hale.

2018 Thirty-sixthAmendment to the IrishConstitution repealed the‘8th Amendment’ whichimposed near absolute banon abortion in Ireland.

2005 UK Ratification of theOptional Protocol to theConvention on the Eliminationof all Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (OP-CEDAW).

2009 Policing and Crime Act2009, s 14 created a strictliability offence in England andWales to pay for, or promise topay for, the sexual services of aperson who has been coerced,deceived, forced or threatenedby a third party into prostitution.

2011 ConcludingObservations of the UNCommittee against Torture,Recommendation to IrelandRegarding the MagdaleneLaundries.

2012 Electoral(Amendment) (PoliticalFunding) Act 2012 introduceda political gender quota inIreland.

2014 Bishops and Priests(Consecration and Ordinationof Women) Measure 2014enabled women to beconsecrated as bishops.

2002 Sex Discrimination(Election Candidates) Act 2002allowed political parties in theUK to use positive discriminationto tackle persistent under-representation of women inParliament and other electedbodies.

2003 The National Assemblyfor Wales became the firstlegislative body in the world tohave an equal number of menand women members.

1967 National Health Service(Family Planning) Act 1967enabled women in England andWales to obtain contraceptiveadvice and services freely onthe NHS, regardless of theirmarital status or reason.

1968 Dagenham Car PlantStrike was a key step toward theenactment of the Equal Pay Act1970.

1971 Opening of the firstWomen’s Refuge

1978 Davis v Johnsonconfirmed that a husband’sproprietorial right to occupy thematrimonial home could besuspended, in the event of hisphysical abuse of his wife orpartner.

1979 Health (Family Planning)Act 1979 legalised the sellingand importing of contraceptives,in certain circumstances, inIreland.

1980 Williams & Glyn’s Bankv Boland established that wivescould have overriding beneficialinterests in the family home.

1981-2000 GreenhamCommon Women’s Peace Camp

1990 Criminal Law(Rape)(Amendment) Act 1990, s 5 formally erased a husband’simmunity from prosecution formarital rape in Ireland.

1992 R v Ahluwalia allowedevidence of ‘battered women'ssyndrome’ to support thedefences of diminishedresponsibility and provocation inhomicide.

1994 Webb v EMO Air Cargo(UK) Ltd (No 2) established that dismissing a pregnantwoman was contrary to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

Photo credits

1 c. 940: Cyfraith Hywel (The Laws of Hywel Dda)Digitised Latin book of the Laws of the Hywel Dda from Llyfrgell GenedlaetholCymru – The National Library of Wales (http://hdl.handle.net/10107/4400109) licence/version/3/)

2 1888: Match Women’s StrikeMatchgirl Strikers via [Public Domain] Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain Mark 1.0](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Matchgirl_strikers.PNG)

3 1918: Representation of the People Act 1918Representation of the People Act 1918 from the Parliamentary Archives

4 1919: Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919Normanton’s Collar, c.1920 from the LSE Women’s Library Collection

5 1968: Dagenham Car Plant StrikeDagenham Car Plant Strike from The Telegraph(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11739947/At-last-a-final-victory-for-Dagenham.html)

6 1971: Opening of the first Women’s Refuge(https://www.pexels.com/photo/adult-black-and-white-body-dark-271418/)

7 1981-2000: Greenham Common Women’s Peace CampGreeham from MayDay Rooms (http://maydayrooms.org/event/under-the-moon-5/) [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]

8 1985: Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985Variety of Vaginas by Teysha LeManski (used with permission)

9 1995: Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995Grounds for divorce information on divorce referendum creator and copyrightbelongs to the Houses of the Oireachtas [CC 4.0 International License(http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/about/copyrightandre-use/)] disclaimer bythe Houses of the Oireachtas applied

10 2003: National Assembly for WalesImage DaiPhoto / istockphoto.com

11 2011: Concluding Observations of the UN Committee against Torture,Recommendation to Ireland Regarding the Magdalene LaundriesMagdalene Laundries photo by Cyril Byrne for the Irish Times (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/manifestly-unfair-treatment-of-magdalene-laundries-workers-ombudsman-finds-1.3302709)

12 2012: Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012Image journal.ie

13 2014: Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women)Measure 2014 Diverse Magazine

14 2017: Lady Hale, UK Supreme Court (used with permission)15 2018: Thirty-sixth Amendment to the Irish Constitution Sinead McEneaney

(used with permission)

Find out moreWomen’s Legal Landmarks:Celebrating the History ofWomen and the Law in the UKand Ireland edited by ErikaRackley and RosemaryAuchmuty is out now.

Or visit our website:https://womenslegallandmarks.com

About the Women’s LegalLandmarks ProjectThe Women’s Legal LandmarksProject was a uniqueinterdisciplinary collaborationinvolving feminist scholarsengaging in the process of‘landmarking’ key legal events,cases and statutes for women inthe UK and Ireland. Our aim wasto offer a scholarly interventioninto the recovery of women’s losthistory by combining legal andhistorical expertise to create thefirst scholarly anthology of legallandmarks for women. Togetherwe worked to produce acollection of landmarks thatdemonstrated women’s agencyand activism in the achievementof law reform and justice.

About the projectorganisers and editorsErika Rackley is Professor ofLaw at Kent Law School andRosemary Auchmuty isProfessor of Law at theUniversity of Reading.

Get in touchErika Rackley:e.rackley@kent.ac.uk

Rosemary Auchmuty:r.auchmuty@reading.ac.uk

Twitter: @wmenslegallandmarks@erikarackley@RAuchmuty

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful for the supportof the Society of Legal Scholars,Social and Legal Studies, theLeverhulme Trust, the BritishAcademy, the Institute ofAdvanced Legal Studies, theLSE, and the Universities ofBirmingham, Bristol, Durham,Kent and Reading.

0 Cover: ‘Woman not incubator’ Dublin, Ireland - September 29, 2012: DublinMarch for Choice 2012, Young woman holding informational poster duringsupporting of the legalization of abortion in Ireland. Image Sebastian Kaczorowski / istockphoto.com