1. Politics
WSPU poster by Hilda Dallas, 1909.
1818 – Jeremy Bentham in favour of women
voting
1865 – John Stuart Mill MP argues for
women to get the vote
1894 – Local Government Act (women who
owned property could vote in local elections.
1908 – the first woman to serve as mayor of a
town
2. •5 July 1909 –the first hunger strike
•1909 The Women's Tax Resistance League founded
•September 1909 – Force feeding introduced to
hunger strikers in English prisons
•1905, 1908, 1913 – 3 phases of WSPU militancy (Civil
Disobedience – Destruction of Public Property –
Arson/Bombings)
•1903 – Women's Social and
Political Union WSPU is formed
(led by Emmeline Pankhurst)
3. •1918 – The Representation of the
People Act of 1918 The vote was given to
women over the age of 30 who were
either a member or married to a member
of the Local Government Register. About
8.4 million women gained the vote.[3]
•November 1918 – the Eligibility of
Women Act was passed, allowing
women to be elected into
Parliament.[3]
•1928 – Women received the vote
on the same terms as men (over
the age of 21) as a result of the
Representation of the People Act
1928.[4]
4. Votes cast in 2010 election
Voting
Con Lab LD Oth Con
lead
over
Lab
Turn-
out
% % % % ± %
Gender
Male 38 28 22 12 10
66
%
Female 36 31 26 8 4
64
%
5. The table below shows the number of female Members of Parliament
elected; the percentage of female MPs; and the total number of female
candidates standing for election.
1945 24 MPs 3.8% 87 Candidates
1974 27 4.35% 161
1983 23 3.5% 280
1997 120 18.2% 672
2010 143 22% 861
7. Houses of Parliament
House of Commons 504 Men
(Elected) 146 Women
House of Lords 642 Men
(Nominated or Hereditary) 181 Women
8. House of Lords
Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda (1883–
1958) was the daughter of David Alfred ('D.A.')
Thomas, first Viscount Rhondda (1856–1918), a
member of the House of Lords. As he had no sons he
had made a special request for her daughter to be
able to take his title after he died. However this did
not entitle her to take his seat in the Upper House.
1958 Women allowed to become Life Peers for the
first time.
2013 22% of the total.
11. Education
..
First to empower women
In 1878 the University of London
became the first university in the UK
to admit women to its degrees
(Oxford and Cambridge did not
formally award degrees to
women until 1920 and 1947
respectively). By 1900, over 30 per
cent of the 536 graduating students
were women.
12. Law
Section 2(3) of the Supreme Court Act 1981
provides that ordinary judges of the Court of
Appeal be styled “Lords Justices of Appeal''
and Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who was the
first woman judge in the Court of appeal was
first known as Lord Justice Butler Sloss. This
only goes to show how much of a “man's
world'' the justice system is.
13. guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 March
2013
The Royal Courts of Justice, which houses the
court of appeal of England and Wales.
.
Three women judges are to be promoted from the high
court to the court of appeal, alongside seven men.
Given the relatively small number of female judges in the high court who
are thought to have sought positions as appeal judges, this must be
regarded as steady but encouraging progress towards increasing the
proportion of women among the senior judiciary.
14. Britain's most senior judge takes aim
at gender imbalance
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 March 2013
Lord Neuberger
The stereotypical image of judges as male and white
may be so deeply entrenched that there could be an
"unconscious bias" against women, the United
Kingdom's most senior judge has suggested.
Last month the UK supreme court appointed three new
justices – as its judges are known – to bring it up to its
full complement of 12. All three – Lord Justice
Hughes, Lord Justice Toulson and Lord Hodge – are
men; there is only one woman, Lady Hale, on the
court. In addition, fewer women applied to be QCs in
the latest round of appointments.
15. Neuberger does not favour positive discrimination. "The British people are
entitled to have the best judges they can get," he said, "… and I think it's slightly
patronising in our field to have a special place for women."
Neuberger believes appointing more part-time judges, even on the supreme
court, may help encourage the promotion of women. "Women are much more
likely to think I'm not good enough … We should think of going to women … and
encouraging them to be to apply for promotion.
"We can also look at academics. There are more women in the academic world.
It's easier to manage life in the academic world with family commitments."
Pressure in the City and elsewhere was subtle, he said. "It's more difficult for
men to take time off than women to look after the children. It will be regarded
as wimpy for the man to do it and then the woman is the one whose career
suffers because she can get time off and then she has her card marked.
"I don't pretend this will end up with us having 50% women in the judiciary
within 10 years. I think it reflects society, largely. But we can be doing things …
The majority [of judges] are male and white and public school and that reflects
society and law firms and the bar."
16. Family
Of the 23.4 million households in England
and Wales in 2011, 1.7 million
(7.2%) consisted of lone parents
with dependent children; this
increased from 2001 when the comparable
figure was 1.4 million (6.5%).
Around 9 in every 10 lone-
parent households were headed
by a woman, both nationally and
across English regions and Wales
17. Violence
Table 7.6 Number of violent incidents against men and women by violence category 2011/12
England
and Wales
Number of incidents (thousands)
Men Women All
All
violence1 1,265 786 2,051
Wounding 321 177 498
Assault
with minor
injury 255 186 441
Assault
without
injury 503 355 857
Robbery 186 68 254
Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for
National Statistics
18. Table 2.05: Offences currently recorded as homicide1 for all victims by relationship of victim to principal suspect and sex of
victim, 2001/02 to 2011/12
England and Wales
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
Numbers
Male victims
Victim acquainted with
suspect
Partner/ex-partner 29 30 26 39 23 29 30 32 19 22 17
Total known 238 215 251 260 208 256 278 241 220 257 200
Female victims
Victim acquainted with
suspect
Partner/ex-partner 117 106 96 106 90 91 80 101 96 95 88
Total known 180 191 157 176 145 140 155 151 152 159 135
All victims
Victim acquainted with
suspect
Son or daughter 43 54 38 34 29 40 48 33 44 42 29
Parent 22 23 32 22 20 10 26 22 21 24 18
Partner/ex-partner 146 136 122 145 113 120 110 133 115 117 105
Other family 22 18 22 25 21 19 33 14 27 20 24
Friend/acquaintance 185 175 194 210 170 207 216 190 165 213 159
Total known 418 406 408 436 353 396 433 392 372 416 335
