The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922 extended legal protections for children throughout the United Kingdom in relation to sexual activity, addressing significant gaps in the 1885 Act of the same name. The earlier Act had raised the age at which … Read more
On 1 December 1922, Monica Mary Geikie Cobb became the first woman barrister in England and Wales to appear in court. She had qualified as a barrister on 22 November that year, one of the first small cohort of women … Read more
Viscountess Rhondda, a hereditary woman peer in her own right, was the first woman to petition to take her seat in the House of Lords. No woman had attempted this previously because of long-established custom and lack of precedent. Although … Read more
On 29 July 1920, The Times reported that ‘Women jurors were empaneled for the first time at the Bristol Quarter Sessions yesterday’. A jury of six women and six men had ‘adjudicated on six cases’. Prosecuting counsel used the unfamiliar … Read more
The Industrial Courts Act 1919 established a permanent Industrial Court to provide voluntary arbitration in trade disputes. Section 1 provided that the Court should consist of independent persons, persons representing employers, persons representing workmen, and ‘in addition one or more … Read more
In September 1918, the War Cabinet set up a committee on ‘Women in Industry’: ‘To investigate and report on the relation which should be maintained between the wages of women and men having regard to the interests of both as … Read more
On 1 December 1919 Nancy Astor became the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Hers was the first female voice heard in the chamber as an MP; she was the first woman MP to … Read more
The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 enabled women to be elected to, sit and vote in the UK House of Commons. Women were previously barred as a matter of common law rather than statute law. It followed the Representation … Read more
DPP v Jonathan Cape and Leopold Hill – the “Well of Loneliness” case – gave legal and social visibility to lesbianism.
Edwards v A-G of Canada, one of the so-called ‘Persons cases’ established that women were people in law for the first time.