1980 |
The 300 Group is founded by Lesley Abdela to push for equal representation of women in the House of Commons.Ìý |
| ÌýÌý |
1980 |
Racing driver Desire Wilson is the first woman to win a Formula One race.Ìý |
| ÌýÌý |
1980 |
In June, Vigdis Finnbogadottir is the first woman to be democratically elected as head-of-state when she becomes President of Iceland.Ìý |
| ÌýÌý |
1981 |
is one of four rebel MPs, known as 'The Gang of Four', who announce their intention of leaving the Labour Party to set up a new party, the SDP. |
| ÌýÌý |
1981 |
Baroness Young becomes the first woman leader of the House of Lords. |
| ÌýÌý |
1982 |
On 14 November more than 20,000 women surround the Greenham Common American airbase in the UK in a protest known as 'embrace the base'.ÌýThey are protesting against the installation of US cruise missiles.Ìý on the site ran for nineteen years from 1981-2000. |
| ÌýÌý |
1982 |
Margaret Pereira is appointed the first woman controller of the Home Office Forensic Science Service. |
| ÌýÌý |
1982 |
The Committee of Enquiry into Human Fertilization is established under the chairmanship of Mary Warnock (born 1924).Ìý |
| ÌýÌý |
1982 |
Caryl Churchill's feminist playÌý is first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
American zoologist (1932-1985) publishes Gorillas in the Mist about her work in Rwanda. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
TheÌý is set up to act on behalf of women photographers. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge admits women for the first time in its 630 year history. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
Dr Sally Ride becomes the first American woman astronaut in space on board the space shuttle Challenger. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
The Women's Rugby Football Union is set up. |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
Lady Mary Donaldson becomes the first woman Lord Mayor of London.Ìý |
| ÌýÌý |
1983 |
Alison Halford becomes the police force's highest ranking female officer when she is appointed Assistant Chief Constable for Merseyside.ÌýÌý |
| ÌýÌý |
1984 |
Liechtenstein give votes to women, the last country in Europe to do so. |
| ÌýÌý |
1984 |
The Equal Pay Act (Equal Value Amendment) introducesÌýequal pay for work of equal value. |
| ÌýÌý |
1984 |
Brenda Dean becomes General Secretary of SOGAT (Society of Graphical and Allied Trades), the first woman to head a major union. |
| ÌýÌý |
1984 |
The designerÌý makes headlines when she arrives to meet Margaret Thatcher wearing an anti-nuclear T-shirt. |
| ÌýÌý |
1985 |
At the age of seventeen, Alison Fisher is the first woman World Snooker Champion. |
| ÌýÌý |
1985 |
Julie Tullis becomes the first woman to be selected for an Everest expedition, but dies on K2 in 1986. |
| ÌýÌý |
1985 |
Kim Cotton became Britain 's first surrogate mother. |
| ÌýÌý |
1986 |
The Sex Discrimination Act (Amendment) . It also lifts the legal restrictions which prevent women from working night shifts in factories. |
| ÌýÌý |
1986 |
Theatre directorÌý sets up Talawa Theatre Company, Britain's first black theatre company. |
| ÌýÌý |
1987 |
Diane Abbot is Britain's first black woman MP. |
| ÌýÌý |
1987 |
Artist Helen Chadwick is the first woman to be short listed for the Turner Prize. |
| ÌýÌý |
1988 |
Julie Hayward, a canteen cook at a shipyard in Liverpool, is the first woman to win a case under the amended Equal Pay Act. |
| ÌýÌý |
1988 |
Benazir Bhutto (born 1953) becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan. |
| ÌýÌý |
1988 |
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss becomes the first woman Law Lord when she is appointed an Appeal Court Judge. |
| ÌýÌý |
1988 |
Sian Edwards is appointed the first woman conductor at Covent Garden. |
| ÌýÌý |
