British Women's Independence at the end of 19th Century

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British Women's Independence at the end of 20th Century

I believe that although women in general had made huge advances

towards equality with men by the end of the twentieth century there

were still many areas in which there was still very little equality. I

also believe that in different groups in British society women have

advanced in equality in different ways, and at different rates.

In the workplace women have made advances towards equality, as the

number of working women both married and un-married has been rising

steadily since the 1980's. In some jobs such as teaching there are now

a majority of working women, roughly 57% of teachers are women.

However, there are other areas in which women are still a long way

behind men, and in many of the high class jobs this is the situation.

I believe this is showing how although women have made advances in

getting more employment, in high class jobs and therefor in monetary

terms they are still a long way behind. For example, accountancy and

banking, where there are only about 25% off women taking the jobs in

these areas.

Many of the jobs which would have been previously unobtainable to

women are now within their grasp. Jobs such as engineering and

building are now open to women This is primarily due to the advance in

technology. Which means there is less need for manual labour in which

men had a clear advantage.

Politically women have also made advances. From gaining the right to

vote in 19791 when Margaret Thatcher the first female Prime Minister.

The view of many feminists was that she didn't use enough of her power

to help women gain equality. However, since her resignation in 1990

the number of women in senior government positions has risen

dramatically. She also put a huge amount of emphasis whilst she was in

power on the family being a unit, and working together. Now more than

20% of MPs are women. Although equality is far from being achieved, it

is a large advance from previously when there were next to no female

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