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1920 - 1929
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1920-1929

The nineteen twenties saw women in the ascendant. New fashions liberated them from corsets and long skirts. The acceptability of single women going to work and having their own money to spend saw a boom in dance halls, cinemas and off the peg-clothes. The full vote was finally won in 1928, when women were enfranchised on equal terms with men

Electricity was beginning to ease the burden in the home and the first birth control clinics meant that married women could at last have some control over their fertility. The handful of women MPs helped push through legislation giving women equality in property rights, divorce and the guardianship of children.

In the literary world, Agatha Christie burst onto the scene with her debut detective novel and a voracious reading public were also able to enjoy the books of Margaret Mead, Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. Meanwhile, Radclyffe Hall caused consternation - and prompted legal action - with her novel, "The Well of Loneliness", about a lesbian relationship.

Following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1921, the first professional women qualified as lawyers, civil servants, vets and engineers and the new world of broadcasting gave women a voice on the airwaves. This was the decade that saw the first woman cabinet minister and the launch of the campaign for women priests.

1920

The great Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931), becomes the first person to be heard on radio when she sings at the Marconi works in Chelmsford.

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1920

Oxford University opens its degrees to women.

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1920

The first international听women's football game is held between听Dick Kerr's Ladies (the famous Preston-based team) and a French team.

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1920

The USA gives votes to women.

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1920

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) publishes her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

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1921

Unemployment benefit was extended to include allowances for wives.

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1921

The diplomat and traveller Gertrude Bell听 (1868-1926)听attends a conference in Egypt hosted by Winston Churchill and is invited to draw up the new boundaries for Iraq.

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1921

Ivy Williams is the first woman to be called to the bar, but she declines. Instead, the first woman barrister is Helena Normanton听 (1883-1957) in 1922.

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1921

Victoria Drummond is first woman member of the Institute of Marine Engineers.

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1921

The Six Point Group is founded by Lady Rhondda (1883-1958), to push for women's equality on six points: political, occupational, moral, social, economic and legal.

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1921

The Football Association bans all women from playing on Football League grounds. more on women's football

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1921

The American novelist Edith Wharton (1861-1937) is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence.

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1922

The first edition of Good Housekeeping, a new style of women's magazine, appears. Contributors to the first issue include Nancy Astor听 and Helena Normanton.

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1922

The Law of Property Act enables both husband and wife to inherit property equally.

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1922

The Infanticide Act is passed. If the state of a woman's mind was found to be unbalanced, she听can听no longer be hanged for killing her child.听

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1922

Carrie Morrison becomes the first woman solicitor.

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1922

Aileen Cust becomes the first woman member of Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

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1922

Irene Barclay is the first woman chartered surveyor.

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1923

The Women's Advertising Club of London is set up with Marion Lyon, advertising manager at Punch,听as its first president.

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1923

Nancy Astor's听first Private Members Bill restricts the sale of alcohol to young people under the age of 18.

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1923

On 2 May Women's Hour听 (not to be confused with Woman's Hour), is first broadcast. The programme runs for less than two years.

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1923

The Matrimonial Causes Bill is passed. For the first time a wife is eligible to petition for divorce on account of her husband's adultery.

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1923

The entomologist, Lucy Evelyn Cheesman (1881-1969) becomes the first woman curator at London Zoo.

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1924

The Electrical Association for Women is founded by听Dame Caroline Haslett (1895-1957), to encourage the use of electricity in the home.

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1925

The Guardianship of Infants Act gives parents equal claims over their children.

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1925

Josephine Baker听 (1906-1975) makes her debut at the Revue Negre in the Champs Elysees in Paris.

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1926

The style guru, Coco Chanel (c.1883-1971) introduces her "little black dress". For the first time, hemlines are on the knee.

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1926

Queen Elizabeth II is born on 21 April.

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1926

Hilda Matheson听 (1888-1940) is appointed as the 大象传媒's first Director of Talks.

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1926

The Women's Cricket Association is formed.

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1927

Ethel Snowden becomes the first woman governor of the 大象传媒.

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1927

Mercedes Gleitze becomes the first Englishwoman to swim the English Channel听on 7 October.

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1927

Dorothy Buchanan becomes the first woman member of Institution of Civil Engineers and听works on Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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1927

Lady Mary Bailey (1890-1960) is the first woman to fly solo across the Irish Sea.

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1928

The Equal Franchise Act is passed giving women equal voting rights with men.听 All women aged over 21 can now vote in elections听more on women's votes

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1928

The novelist Radclyffe Hall (1980-1943) publishes The Well of Loneliness, about a lesbian relationship. Within weeks, the book is declared obscene and is withdrawn from sale. Radclyffe Hall finds herself facing an obscenity trial.

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1928

Elisabeth Scott (1898-1972) is announced winner of the competition to design the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford.

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1928

Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) is the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger and log keeper.

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1928

Dame Freya Stark听 (1893 - 1993), traveller extraordinaire, embarks on the first of her travels, to the Lebanon.

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1928

The anthropologist Margaret Mead听 (1901-1978) publishes the first of her best-selling books Coming of Age in Samoa.

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1929

On 30 May thousands of eager young women were allowed to vote for the first time. This General Election is sometimes referred to as the Flapper Election.听

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1929

A Week in Westminster听is first broadcast on the 大象传媒.听It is the idea of Hilda Matheson,听who wishes to inform the newly enfranchised women about the workings of parliament.

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1929

The Townswoman's Guild holds its first meeting, at Hayward 's Heath in Sussex.

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1929

Women become "persons" in their own right, by order of the Privy Council.

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1929

Mother Theresa (1910-1997) starts her life as a missionary with the Loreto Nuns in Calcutta.

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1929

Margaret Bondfield听 (1873-1953) is appointed Minister of Labour, making her the first woman cabinet minister.

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1929

Maude Royden听 (1876-1956) sets up the Society for the Ministry of Women.

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1929

Virginia Woolf听 (1882-1941) publishes her most overtly feminist work A Room of One's Own.

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1929

The ceramicists听Susie Cooper (1902-1995) establishes her own pottery in Tunstall, Staffordshire.

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1929

The speedway rider, Fay Taylour (1908-1983) represents Britain in the Australian Speedway Championships - and wins.

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