Women's legal landmarks in the interwar years : not for want of trying / edited by Rosemary Auchmuty, Erika Rackley and Mari Takayanagi.

Oxford : Hart Publishing, 2024.

1st edition

202413

Six Point Group (Great Britain)

Married Women's Association (Great Britain)

Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- England -- History.

Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- History -- Wales -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- History.

Women's rights -- England -- History.

Women's rights -- Wales -- History.

Women lawyers -- England -- History.

Women lawyers -- Wales -- History.

1. Women's legal landmarks in the interwar years

The landmarks

2. Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918

3. Constance Georgine Markiewicz, first woman elected to Parliament, 1918

4. Nancy Astor, first woman to take her seat in the UK Parliament, 1919

5. Report of the War Cabinet Committee on women in industry, 1919

6. Industrial Courts Act 1919

7. First women jurors, 1920

8. Formation of the Six Point Group, 1921

9. Ivy Williams, first woman to qualify as a barrister, 1922

10. Lady Rhondda's petition for women to sit in House of Lords, 1922

11. Monica Geikie Cobb, first woman barrister to appear in Court, 1922

12. Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922

13. Intoxicating Liquor (Sale to Persons under Eighteen) Act 1923

14. Women's Lavatory accommodation at the Law Society, 1923

15. Agnes Twiston Hughes, first Welsh woman to practise as a solicitor, 1923

16. First published law textbooks on 'women and Law' written by women Lawyers in Great Britain, 1924-34

17. Guardianship of Infants Act 1925

18. Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pension Act 1925

19. Administration of Estates Act 1925

20. Short v Poole Corporation (1926)

21. Adoption of Children Act 1926

22. Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928

23. Age of Marriage Act 1929

24. A room of one's own, Virginia Woolf, 1929

25. Margaret Bondfield, first woman Cabinet Minister, 1929

26. Ministry of Health Memorandum 153/MCW, 1930

27. Stella Thomas, first black woman to be called to the Bar of England and Wales, 1933

28. Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors) Act 1935

29. Matrimonial Causes Act 1937

30. R v Bourne (1938)

31. Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938

32. Formation of the Married Women's Association, 1938

33. Infanticide Act 1938

34. Bradford Third Equitable Benefit Building Society v Borders (1939).

Women's Legal Landmarks in the Interwar Years shines new light on 33 legal landmarks, many forgotten today, that affected women in England and Wales between 1918 and 1939. It considers the work of feminist activists to bring about legal change which benefited – or aimed to benefit – women. Areas explored include property, inheritance, adoption, marriage, access to health care, criminal law, employment opportunities, pay, pensions and political representation. It also examines campaigns by key women's organisations, and assesses the impact of early women lawyers and politicians. While some of the landmarks effected change during this period, others provided the foundation for measures in later decades. Together the landmarks demonstrate that far from being a relatively quiet period of British feminism, the interwar period played a key role in ongoing fights for recognition, representation and justice. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781509969722

xii, 294 pages ; 25cm