Have women won equal rights with men in the 20th century?
There are many different aspects of inequality for women such as; politics, work, pay, family and socio-economic/ religious groups. These are all factors of the inequality that women faced in the early 1900s, but many of these factors have been reduced or completely removed by the end of the 20th century. But have women fully gained equality in all aspects of life?
There have been many advances in politics that have showed how women have won equality during the 20th century, such as the fact that since 1918 women have been allowed to be elected as members of parliament and the fact that the 1st women MP, Nancy Astor, was elected in 1919. During the next 80yrs that followed, only 240 of the 4,500 MPs elected have been female. In 1997 120 women were elected as MPs, but this total still meant that only 1 in every 8 MPs was women. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of Britain, never before had a women held this highest political position. Just a few decades ago this would have been unthinkable. When she took office Margaret Thatcher declared that ‘the battle for women’s rights has been largely won’. Since the appointment of Margaret Thatcher as PM there have been an increasing number of women MPs and Cabinet members. For example in 1997 there were 120 women MPs elected and 5 cabinet members, whereas in 2007 there are 126 women MPs out of the total 646 MPs (19.5%) and 5 out of the 22 cabinet members are women (22.7%). This is an improvement from the early 20th century but still means that only 1/5th of MPs are women. Therefore I feel that women still haven’t totally achieved equality in political status by the end of the 20th century/ start of 21st century.
