Have Women Achieved Professional Equality? 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act

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2019 marks 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 when a woman was recognised as a ‘person’ in law. This groundbreaking Act enabled women to be awarded university degrees and to enter professions such as law and medicine from which they had been barred. 

But women were excluded from the foreign and diplomatic service until 1946, and while they were allowed to sit on juries, they were widely excluded from cases involving sexual assault until 1972. What did the Act achieve and what barriers to equality still remain?

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This event was on Thu, 03 Oct 2019

Jo Delahunty KC

Professor Jo Delahunty KC

Professor of Law

Professor Jo Delahunty KC is one of the UK’s leading barristers specialising in cases concerned with families and children. She was Gresham Professor of Law between 2016 and 2020.

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