Women's Legal Capacity and Work: How the Law Changed
Until the late 1800s a woman in these countries usually could not attend university, enter the law or medicine, or manage property and sue in her own name once married. The law then changed in four overlapping ways: access to education, access to professions and the job itself, laws on equal pay and treatment, and a woman's own legal standing. The chart shows that the sequence was similar but the dates were not. France opened the bar to women in 1900, Britain in 1919 and the United States, state by state, from the 1870s; but Britain and France passed equal pay laws in 1970 and 1972, while the United States did in 1963.
1876United Kingdom· Professions and the workplace
Women may become doctors
The Medical Act 1876 allowed medical licensing bodies to admit women, opening the medical profession after years of exclusion.
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These charts show the main turning points in the law of several countries, from our own knowledge. Each entry is one law or decision, dated by when it was passed or decided; the date it took effect is sometimes later. A chart is a map of turning points, not a complete history, and it records the law on paper, not how it was applied. Check the statutes and decisions named for the exact wording. It is general information, not legal advice.
The story in each country
United Kingdom
Universities and medicine opened in the 1870s, the professions in 1919, and equal pay and sex discrimination laws followed in 1970 and 1975, consolidated in 2010.
United States
The Supreme Court first upheld excluding women from the bar, in 1873; the great changes came with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX and the equal protection cases of the 1970s and 1990s.
France
Girls' secondary schooling in 1880, the bar in 1900, married women's control of their earnings in 1907, and equality in pay and at work by statute in 1972 and 1983.
Every turning point, in order
United Kingdom
1876 Women may become doctors
Professions and the workplace
The Medical Act 1876 allowed medical licensing bodies to admit women, opening the medical profession after years of exclusion.
1878 University of London opens degrees to women
Education
In 1878 the University of London became the first university in the United Kingdom to open its degrees to women.
1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act
Professions and the workplace
The Act provided that a person should not be disqualified by sex or marriage from holding a public office, entering a profession such as the bar or acting as a juror.
1920 Oxford awards degrees to women
Education
The University of Oxford began to award degrees to women in 1920; Cambridge followed only in 1948.
1935 Wives may sue and be sued
A woman's own legal standing
The Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors) Act 1935 gave a married woman the same capacity as any other person to sue, to be sued and to make contracts.
1946 The marriage bar ends
Professions and the workplace
The civil service dropped the rule that a woman had to resign on marriage in 1946; the Education Act 1944 had ended the same rule for teachers.
1948 Cambridge awards degrees to women
Education
Women were admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge and to its degrees in 1948.
1970 Equal Pay Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Equal Pay Act 1970, in force from 1975, required equal pay for women doing the same or equivalent work as men.
1975 Sex Discrimination Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made sex discrimination unlawful in work, education and services, and set up the Equal Opportunities Commission.
1976 Maternity rights
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Employment Protection Act 1975, in force from 1976, gave women the right to maternity pay, to return to work and not to be dismissed for pregnancy.
2010 Equality Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Equality Act 2010 brought the equal pay and discrimination laws into a single Act covering sex and other protected characteristics.
United States
1873 Bradwell v. Illinois
Professions and the workplace
The Supreme Court upheld a state's refusal to license a woman, Myra Bradwell, as a lawyer; a concurring opinion said a woman's place was in the home.
1879 Women may argue before the Supreme Court
Professions and the workplace
Congress passed a law allowing women lawyers to practise before the Supreme Court, after Belva Lockwood had been refused admission.
1908 Muller v. Oregon
Professions and the workplace
The Supreme Court upheld a limit of ten working hours a day for women, on the ground that women's health needed special protection.
1963 Equal Pay Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal to pay men and women different wages for equal work in the same workplace.
1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal for an employer to discriminate on grounds of sex, as well as race, colour, religion and national origin.
1971 Reed v. Reed
A woman's own legal standing
The Supreme Court held for the first time that a law treating men and women differently violated the Equal Protection Clause.
1972 Title IX
Education
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 banned sex discrimination in any education programme receiving federal money, including sports.
1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act made discrimination because of pregnancy a form of sex discrimination.
1993 Family and Medical Leave Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Family and Medical Leave Act gave eligible employees up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child and for family illness.
1996 United States v. Virginia
Education
The Supreme Court held that the Virginia Military Institute could not exclude women, requiring an 'exceedingly persuasive justification' for sex-based classifications.
2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The Act reset the time limit for bringing a pay discrimination claim each time an unequal paycheck is issued.
France
1861 First woman bachelor
Education
Julie-Victoire Daubié passed the baccalauréat in 1861, the first woman in France to do so.
1880 Secondary schools for girls
Education
The Camille Sée law of December 1880 created public secondary schools for girls.
1900 Women at the bar
Professions and the workplace
A law of 1 December 1900 allowed women with a law degree to take the lawyer's oath and practise.
1907 Wives control their earnings
Professions and the workplace
A law of 13 July 1907 gave a married woman the right to freely dispose of her own earnings.
1924 Same baccalauréat
Education
A decree of 1924 gave girls' and boys' secondary schooling the same programmes and the same baccalauréat.
1938 End of the wife's legal incapacity
A woman's own legal standing
A law of 18 February 1938 ended the rule that a married woman was legally incapable of many acts without her husband.
1946 Equal rights in the Constitution
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The preamble of the 1946 Constitution declared that the law guarantees women equal rights with men in all domains.
1965 Wives may work and bank on their own
A woman's own legal standing
A law of 13 July 1965 let a wife work and open a bank account without her husband's permission.
1972 Equal pay law
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
A law of 22 December 1972 required equal pay for men and women for work of equal value.
1983 Roudy law
Equal pay, leave and equal-treatment laws
The law of 13 July 1983 on professional equality between women and men barred sex discrimination in hiring and promotion and required employers to report on the position of women.
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