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1960 – Thousands of protesters gather in Trafalgar Square to protest against the H-bomb.

1961 – Woman still struggle to reach the higher levels of the civil service and make up only 5% of the fast stream intake in 1961.

The sexual revolution begins with the launch of the UK’s first contraceptive pill.

Women’s Liberation Movement
The UK Women’s Liberation movement emerges in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This movement gains prominence through different forms of direct action and debate. Built around networks of local women’s groups, the movement establishes networks for support, examines women’s roles and relationships in society and defines a set of demands for the social and economic equality for women.

1963 – 29% of new medical graduates are women.

1964 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for identifying the structure of the vitamin B12; her work also confirms the chemical structure of penicillin.

Married Women’s Property Act gives wives a legal right to half any saving they make from heir housekeeping allowance.

1965 - A 1965 opinion poll found that 80% of those surveyed thought women with children under school age should always stay at home.

First female Minister of Transport
Barbara Castle is appointed Minister of Transport, the highest office held by a female politician to date. Ironically she doesn’t drive herself and doesn’t posses a driver’s licence!

1966 - ‘Trousers were not allowed when I joined as a typist in 1966. You never called anyone by their first names. There was no flexible working, no flexibility at all. We had a seven minute break in the afternoon – at the end of the seven minutes, the superintendent tapped her pencil on the desk and said “Back to work now ladies!”.’ Jenny Bennett, Home Office, 1966

1967 - Fastest female on wheels.
Cyclist Beryl Burton competes in a 12-hour Time Trial race in Otley, West Yorkshire. Men and women aren’t legally allowed to race together, so Beryl Burton starts two minutes behind the fastest man. She beats all competitors, including Britain’s championship men, making her the first woman to ever win a mixed athletic race.

The right to choose
The Abortion Act gives women the right to choose to terminate their pregnancy up to 28 weeks. Combined with the pill, this is a powerful factor in woman’s equality, enabling many more to join the workforce.

1970– Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to discriminate in pay between men and women where they are doing the same work.

 Women’s group from around the country meet at the first National Women’s Liberation Conference at Ruskin College, Oxford to discuss the challenges face women and the liberation movement.

Improving career prospects for women
Extract from a meeting note on the position of women in the Civil Service, January 1970.

1971 – Conflicting attitudes revealed in staff publication
Conservation between men and women in HM Customs and Excise (Portcullis, HM Customs and Excise, March 1971.

Civil Service beauty pageant, Southend Fete (Portcullis, HM Customs and Excise, August, 1971)

International Women’s Day
The Women’s National Co-ordinating Committee prints banners and hands in a petition to the Prime Minister 4,000 women march through London on first International Women’s Day march.

1972 – Foreign Office marriage bar is rescinded.

Women are paid 37% less then men in Equivalent roles.

‘When I started work at the Inland Revenue in Somerset House in 1972, there was only one ladies toilet, two floors up and a long walk away. We did a study to prove the time wasted in toilet trips and got them to install a ladies’ on every floor.’ Margaret Sutliffe, Inland Revenue, 1972

1973 - The Home Office appoints the first ever women immigration officer- Tricia Smith and Jil Montgomery – in Southampton.

Equality takes a step forward in Metropolitan Police as the force integrates male and female officers, disbanding its ‘A4’ women’s branch.

Eleanor Emery is appointed High Commissioner for Botswana – the first women to head a British mission.

1974 – Equality achieved
New staff vacancies announced at Customs and Excise (Portcullis, Customs and Excise, January 1974) 

The National Women’s Aid Federation is set up, linking nearly 40 refuge services for women escaping domestic violence.

1975 – Sex Discrimination Act and Employment Protection Act
A milestone year for equal rights as several key pieces of legislation are passed. The Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in education, recruitment and advertising. The Employment Protection Act introduces statutory maternity pay and makes it illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant.

1976 – The first Rape Crisis Centre opens in North London, funded by the Government and charities, to provide counselling and supported to rape victims.

1977 – Only around 25% of university students are women in the 1970s.

1978 – First women dog handlers
These women made up a group which formed the first specialist drug detector dog force formed by HM Customs and Excise for deployment at ports and airports.

Assistant Officer Sue Nowers, Lesley Warren and Rose Thomas at the end of a 15 week training course at the RAF Police School, Nottingham.

1979 – Dame Josephine Barnes becomes the first female governor of male prison.

First Female Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher sweeps to power, becoming Britain’s first female Prime Minister.

1980 – The 300 Group is founded by Lesley Abdela to push for equal representation of women in the House of Commons.

 1981 – Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby PC, helps to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In 2001 – 2004, she serves as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.

1982 – Forensic lead
Margaret Pereira becomes Britain’s leading crime scene analyst when she is named as the first female Controller of the British Forensic Science Service. She later becomes President of the British Academy of Forensic Science.

1982 – Falklands War (April – June 1982)
After Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, Britain declares war and sends a naval task force to the South Atlantic. The conflict results in a swift victory with minimal loss of life.

After 630 years as an exclusively male institution, Corpus Christi College Cambridge admits women for the first time.

Taking the lead
Baroness Young becomes the first female Leader of the House of Lords, the only woman ever appointed to the Cabinet by Margaret Thatcher. She serves from 1981 to 1983.

1984 – Miners Strike
The miners’ strike over proposed pit closures divides the country. The strike means huge hardship for women from traditional working-class communities. Many become breadwinners for the first time after the strike ends in defeat for the miners.

 1985 – Kim Cotton becomes Britain’s first surrogate mother.

1986 – The second Sex Discrimination Act (after the 1075 Act) removes limits on the hours and time women can be asked to work.

1987 – First black woman MP
Diane Abbott is voted Britain’s first black woman MP. At the same time Margaret Thatcher is returned to power for the third time.

Veronica Sutherland is the first woman to be appointed as an Ambassador – for Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

1988 – Top QC Elizabeth Butler-Sloss becomes Britain’s first ever female Law Lord when she is appointed as an Appeal Court judge.

In the late 1980s one third of babies are born to unmarried parents, who are often living together.

1989 - Valerie Amos becomes the first black Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Pioneer dies
Dame Enid Mary Russell Russell-Smith, one of the first women to enter the British civil service via competitive examination, dies. She rose to become Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Health in 1939.

Boost for women doctors
A joint working party is set up to consider the issues affecting women doctors and their careers.

‘My District Inspector (DI) called all female inspectors “woman” and frowned upon wearing trousers at work as inappropriate. In my first commissioner’s meeting, I slipped backwards on my wheeled chair into the walk-in fireplace. My legs were in the air and my stockings came undone, leaving me and more than one commissioner very red-faced. My DI exclaimed “God preserve us from women”!’ Juliet, Inland Revenue, 1989

1990 – By the 1990s increasing numbers of girls take national school exams and are outperforming boys.

1992 - Breaking a 700-year tradition
700-years after the House of Commons was first formed, it elects Betty Boothroyd as the first female Speaker of the House. 

Head of MI5 goes public
MI5 appoints Stella Rimington as its first female Director-General. She is the first MI5 chief to be publicly named.

Female Director heads up Fund
Rosemary Doidge is appointed as the first woman Director of the Civil Service Benevolent Fund.

1995 - First woman awarded Military Cross
Michelle Norris, from the Royal Army Medical Corps, is the first woman to be awarded the Military Cross for carrying out crucial first aid while under enemy sniper fire in Iraq.

1997 – 121 women MPs are elected in the 1997 General Election - the highest representation of women to date.

“Bloody well get on and do it, otherwise I’ll head-butt you!” Mo Mowlam MP overheard talking to Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams at talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. During her time as Northern Ireland Secretary she saw the signing of the historic Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 

Family-friendly Act
National Health Service (Primary Care) Act introduces new flexible working opportunities for GPs, as a step towards increasing its family-friendly policies.

2000 – Dame Mavis McDonald is appointed as the first female Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office.

“When I first became Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office in 2000 I found how difficult it could be to make yourself heard in a male-dominated forum. All the same I have loved my career and would not have missed it for anything.” Dame Mavis McDonald, Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office

2001 – Women take charge at DCMS
Department for Culture, Media and Sport appoints its first Secretary of Sate, Tessa Jowell and Permanent Secretary Dame Sue Street.

More than 50% of civil servants are women.

2003 – Legal entitlement to flexible work
Department of Health introduces flexible working. Employees with children or caring responsibilities have a legal right to ask for flexible working.

2004 – Women in science
The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is launched in response to the Greenfield Report, which highlighted the barriers still faced by girls and women in science.

2005 – The Civil Partnership Act is passed, meaning all employers, including the Civil Service, have to give gay couples in civil partnerships the same rights as married heterosexual couples, including access to pension and special leave arrangements.

“I hope that future generations who pass this way down Whitehall will ask themselves what sort of women were they and look at history for the answer”  Baroness Betty Boothroyd

WWII women celebrated
The Queen unveils the memorial to the Women of World War II at Whitehall. The 6.7-metre-high bronze statue depicts the uniforms and working clothes worn by 7 million women during the war. Military helicopters flown by all-female crews fly past the memorial to mark the occasion.

London wins Olympic bid
London wins the 2012 Olympic bid under the joint leadership of Secretary of State,Tessa Jowell and Permanent Secretary, Sue Street.

2006 - More rights for parents
The Work and Families Act extends maternity and adoption leave from six to nine months and introduces a limited form of paid paternity leave in cases where the mother returns to work.

Celebrating diversity
The first ever Civil Service Diversity and Equality Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of civil servants at all levels. More than 170 entries were received from all regions, departments and agencies and from a wide range of diversity and equality areas.

2007 - Equal prize at Wimbledon
The All England Club announces that for the first time Wimbledon will offer women and men equal prize money at this year’s tournament.

2009 - 60% of graduates from medical school are women.

35% of senior civil servants are women.

Red Arrows’ first woman pilot
Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore becomes the first female pilot to join the Royal Air Force Acrobatic Team, the Red Arrows.

In 2009, the Civil Service Benevolent Fund provides £2,650,000 in grant aid to 4100 women. 41% of the women helped are separated, divorced or widowed.

2010 – Gold!
Amy Williams wins Britain’s first solo Winter Olympics gold medal for
30 years with victory in the women’s bob skeleton.

Harriet Harman, acting Leader of the Labour Party, is the longest continuously serving female MP, having been elected in 1982.

139 women become MPs - a new record. However, women make up only 21% of the UK Parliament, comparing badly with the German Bundestag (33%), the Dutch Parliament (42%) and the world's most equal parliaments Rwanda (56%) and Sweden (46%).

Opportunity Knocks
HMRC’s Senior Women’s Network wins the ‘Advancing Women in the Workplace” award at ‘Opportunity Now”, 2010.

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Last updated 563 days ago by Christina Hunter