0:00:02 > 0:00:06It is amazing to think how different life was for a woman over 100 years ago.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Back then, I wouldn't have been able to choose when I have a family
0:00:09 > 0:00:12because contraception wouldn't have been available to me.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Workplace opportunities would have been limited and I wouldn't have even had the vote.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20But next I want to play you something brand new...
0:00:20 > 0:00:24'I'm Gemma Cairney, I'm 28-years-old and I'm a Radio One DJ.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28'Obviously, I couldn't have done this job 100 years ago,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30'but, for women, so much else has changed too.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33'Back then, there was no reliable contraception,
0:00:33 > 0:00:38'we couldn't legally own a business, we were effectively the property of our husband
0:00:38 > 0:00:42'and, most of all, until 1918, we couldn't vote.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47'Over the last century, the people who've fought to change all of this have been women.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51'I'm off to find out who they were and find out what they did
0:00:51 > 0:00:54'because I owe these women a debt of gratitude.'
0:01:02 > 0:01:05'The most important single development in the history
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'of the Women's Movement in Britain was in politics.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:13How were women meant to change the decisions made right here in Parliament if you couldn't vote?
0:01:13 > 0:01:15'I've been voting since I was 18
0:01:15 > 0:01:19'because I reckon it's important for me to have my say.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23'And women fought an extraordinary battle in this country to get the vote,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27'enduring ridicule, assault, imprisonment and even death.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31'For half a century, they'd campaigned peacefully with no result.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34'Then, in 1903, a Manchester woman, Emmeline Pankhurst,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37'formed the Women's Social and Political Union.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39'Emmeline and the so-called suffragettes
0:01:39 > 0:01:43'were radical, political and fearless.'
0:01:43 > 0:01:47And they decided that the old constitutional practices of just simply petitioning
0:01:47 > 0:01:51and asking the Members of Parliament to give them the right to vote
0:01:51 > 0:01:54wasn't enough, and that they weren't being listened to.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57The peaceful campaigns had gone on for over 50 years
0:01:57 > 0:02:02so now they decided they were going to turn to direct action tactics, what they called "militancy".
0:02:02 > 0:02:05'The suffragettes, most of them respectable,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08'middle-class women, employed tactics that shocked society.'
0:02:08 > 0:02:13They held the biggest demonstration in British history up until that point in 1908
0:02:13 > 0:02:17and then, after police violence was used against the demonstrators,
0:02:17 > 0:02:22then they threw stones to smash windows, making the point that women's lives
0:02:22 > 0:02:25weren't regarded as important as property in those days.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28'100 years ago, if I'd been a suffragette,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31'I'd have been banned from even visiting much of Parliament.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35'But one determined campaigner was not going to let this stop her.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39There's a very famous woman by the name of Emily Wilding Davison,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43who, in 1910, wanted to find a way of getting into
0:02:43 > 0:02:46the chamber of the House of Commons to ask a question.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50She came in as a visitor and she hid in a ventilation shaft
0:02:50 > 0:02:55and waited there for 36 hours until she was discovered by a policeman.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58And I've got here the police report of that occasion.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03He says here he found a woman standing on a ladder in the shaft.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06He said, "What are you doing here?"
0:03:06 > 0:03:09She said, "I am a suffragette
0:03:09 > 0:03:14"and my ambition is to get into the House to ask a question."
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Well, that sums it up. "My ambition is to get into the House."
0:03:18 > 0:03:23Emily Wilding Davison and all of the suffragettes believed that a woman's place was in the House of Commons
0:03:23 > 0:03:26and they were prepared to go to extraordinary lengths.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29It is both mind-bending and fascinating
0:03:29 > 0:03:32to think of all the different tactics used as acts of activism
0:03:32 > 0:03:36right here in Parliament, but the struggle didn't stop there.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39If you were caught, then maybe you'd be sent to prison.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44'Over 1,000 suffragettes were locked up in prisons like Holloway in horrendous conditions.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47'Many continued their protest by going on hunger strike
0:03:47 > 0:03:50'and being force-fed by the authorities.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52'Emily Davison was one of these women.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56'She'd been a teacher, but was now a committed, full-time suffragette.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59'She wrote vividly about her experience.'
0:03:59 > 0:04:04"They gripped my head and began to force the tube down my nostril.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06"It hurt me very much".
0:04:06 > 0:04:11This is an actual extract from Emily Davison's diary during her time at this very prison.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15I just can't imagine that kind of treatment -
0:04:15 > 0:04:18that horrible nastiness, that kind of physicality,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22just because she was trying to get women the vote.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28'It was at Epsom racecourse in June 1913 where Emily Davison
0:04:28 > 0:04:32'staged the most dramatic and dangerous publicity stunt yet.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37'The Epsom Derby was a highlight of the social calendar,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40'with the King and Queen coming to see the racing.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44'Emily Davison was there because the King's horse, Anmer, was running.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'As the horses rounded the bend, she slipped under the barrier
0:04:47 > 0:04:50'and stepped in front of the King's horse.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52'It hit her at full gallop.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55'She died four days later.'
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Wow. That's just two horses on a training track
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and they had so much speed and so much force and they are so big.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10I cannot imagine what would go through someone's brain to do such a thing.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13She knew that she was risking her life,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15as did many suffragettes on many, many occasions.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19When they hunger struck in prison, when they undertook very dangerous stunts.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24But I think that was to draw attention to how serious what was happening to them really was.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27I think it also drew attention to the way that the Government were
0:05:27 > 0:05:32treating women, were torturing women in prison, and just how desperate
0:05:32 > 0:05:35they felt and how important they felt it was to mobilise
0:05:35 > 0:05:38public opinion and to shock people into seeing what was happening.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43'Many believe Emily Davison had been trying to pin a 'Votes for Women' badge
0:05:43 > 0:05:46'on the horse that day and did not mean to die.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48'But her brave action has gone down in history
0:05:48 > 0:05:52'and, eventually, the suffragettes did win their fight.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56'In 1918, women were granted the right to vote.'
0:05:56 > 0:05:58Here is the Act, the parchment,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03the thing that gave women the vote in 1918.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06So many people had fought so hard for this
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and some women had even lost their lives.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11And this is it!
0:06:12 > 0:06:14And here we go.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17"A woman shall be entitled to be registered
0:06:17 > 0:06:21"as a parliamentary elector for a constituency
0:06:21 > 0:06:25"if she has attained the age of 30 years."
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Now, this is quite an important point.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Even though women were finally given the vote,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32they had to be over the age of 30,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35which isn't quite fair, as men could do it from 21.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41'Ten years later, in 1928, women finally got to vote at 21.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45'At last, women were political equals to men.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47'And it didn't stop there.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50'Many women have since taken their place on the political stage.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54'From the first woman MP, Nancy Astor, in 1919,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59'to Margaret Thatcher becoming our first female Prime Minister in 1979.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04'Today, there are 146 women in Parliament, which is fantastic,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08'until you compare this with the 504 male MPs.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11'It seems there's still a long way to go.'
0:07:11 > 0:07:15It's really important that we have a really representative Parliament,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18I think all political parties are trying to do their part
0:07:18 > 0:07:22to get more women to think of politics as being part of what they could do with their lives.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28It's a basic political right to have your say in what happens in the democracy of this country.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Parliament ought to reflect the whole country
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and it can't if you've only got one in five women MPs.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38'There is undoubtedly more to be done,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41'but so much has been achieved in the past 100 years,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45'and it's all thanks to women like Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison.'
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Or you can text us 81199.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04'At the moment my job is probably my main priority.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07'But, one day, that might change.'
0:08:07 > 0:08:10One day I think I'd like to have children, but it's me that decides
0:08:10 > 0:08:13if and when that happens because I have control of my own body.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16But it hasn't always been like that.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19There was a time when most women had no control over
0:08:19 > 0:08:23when they started their families or how big they were.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27'Despite the joys of children and family life, the reality
0:08:27 > 0:08:31'of childbirth was both dangerous and difficult for many women.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35'In the past, families of ten or more weren't uncommon.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38'Even Queen Victoria had nine children.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42'Around 1900, there was a one-in-20 chance of dying during labour,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45'and if you were poor, as a mother, you were tied to the home
0:08:45 > 0:08:48'with little opportunity to work or better your lot.'
0:08:48 > 0:08:52'No wonder women tried to find ways to control their fertility,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55'but reliable birth control simply didn't exist.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58There was this idea that working class women would say
0:08:58 > 0:09:02a good husband was a man who gave his wage packet to her
0:09:02 > 0:09:06at the end of the week and didn't bother her much sexually.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11There was contraception but, erm, I mean, there were condoms being used by men,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14but they were generally used by men who went to prostitutes
0:09:14 > 0:09:18and it was to stop them getting sexual diseases.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22'In 1918, academic and scientist Marie Stopes
0:09:22 > 0:09:25'wrote a pioneering book on sex education.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28'Next, she turned her attention to contraception.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31'She believed that married women had the right to birth control.'
0:09:31 > 0:09:36She was in favour of the cap which should...you know, it was developing in this period...
0:09:36 > 0:09:39well, developed from the late 19th century.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42And she opened the first birth control clinic in 1921
0:09:42 > 0:09:46for married women, and she was very insistent it was for married women
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and women who had already got a child or two.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54But it led to a few more clinics around the country opening up.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58There is so much contraceptive choice available to us
0:09:58 > 0:10:01that it just seems nuts to imagine having hardly anything at all.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06It was Marie Stopes who blazed the trail for reproductive rights.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09But in 1961, a real game-changer came into play
0:10:09 > 0:10:11in this little white box.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17'For the first time ever, the pill reliably separated sex from reproduction.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20'It was easy, convenient and gave women the freedom to choose
0:10:20 > 0:10:23'when to have children on their own terms.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:26It was an amazing, erm, development
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and women wanted it from the word go
0:10:28 > 0:10:33but, first of all, it was only allowed for married women or women about to be married.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37You know, if women did want to have sex, they didn't want that fear of pregnancy hanging over them,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40so, yes, it was really an enormous change.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44These days, the pill is 99% reliable,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47that is if you take it properly,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51but women many years ago were potentially faced with a tougher choice
0:10:51 > 0:10:55if they found themselves unexpectedly pregnant or didn't want a child.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57I'm talking about abortion.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Abortion has been around for thousands of years
0:11:00 > 0:11:03but only became legal in this country in the 1960s.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09So-called back street abortions were available, but were brutal affairs.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12'I'm meeting Wendy Savage,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16'a doctor and campaigner for women's rights in childbirth and fertility.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Well, what they tended to use was enema syringes,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23which were put through the cervix and then labour would start
0:11:23 > 0:11:26or, you know, the miscarriage would start
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and the woman would start to bleed and then she'd go to the hospital.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33And then she would be asked whether she'd done anything to do it,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36because it was illegal, and they would say no.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39And who were these people carrying out these abortions?
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Just untrained women who'd learnt how to do it
0:11:42 > 0:11:44because they wanted to help other women,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49and abortion was the leading cause of maternal death at that time.
0:11:49 > 0:11:55And it was because of that that the law was changed in 1967,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59because the campaigners really said, this is wrong,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04that young, healthy women are dying, and we need to change the law.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08'The Abortion Act came into force in 1967,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10'but that was only in mainland Britain.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13'In Northern Ireland, the law is different
0:12:13 > 0:12:18'and abortion is only allowed if there are serious health risks to the life of the pregnant woman.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23'Today, in the UK, 200,000 women have abortions each year,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26'but it remains a controversial subject.'
0:12:26 > 0:12:30So far in my life I've decided that I'm not ready to have children yet,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32and I can make that decision because I own my body,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36I own my own reproductive system and contraception is available to me.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Thank goodness!
0:12:38 > 0:12:43If I was in the Victorian times, I might already have five, six or seven children.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45How terrifying!
0:12:45 > 0:12:49It's to do with scientific advances and, most importantly,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52it's to do with a big attitude change
0:12:52 > 0:12:54that women finally have the choice.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12RADIO: Weekends on BBC Radio One.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Hello, everyone!
0:13:14 > 0:13:18It's Gemma Cairney on your radio. How's it going? Good morning.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Rise and shine. Now, we don't really want to be too highbrow...
0:13:21 > 0:13:23I absolutely love my job.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26I've been here at the BBC for four years now
0:13:26 > 0:13:28and I get challenged every single day.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30I continue to learn things.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33When I was younger, as a young girl, looking towards my future
0:13:33 > 0:13:36as a woman, I felt like I could pretty much do anything.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40If I wanted to be a doctor, I would train and do that.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42If I wanted to be a lawyer, I would train and do that.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46So I do feel I've pretty much ended up doing the right thing for me.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49'And one of the things that I love about my job
0:13:49 > 0:13:51'is meeting all sorts of people.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55'So to find out more about life for women 100 years ago,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57'I'm going to see Diana Gould.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59'who was born before the start of the First World War
0:13:59 > 0:14:03'and before women even had the vote.'
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- How old am I? - Yes. I know it's a rude question.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09- In two months' time I will be 101. - That's amazing!- Yeah!
0:14:09 > 0:14:13- High five! - SHE LAUGHS
0:14:13 > 0:14:16What changes have you seen since being a young girl?
0:14:16 > 0:14:18The world has really changed.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23It's lovely to see women really doing the things,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27showing the world that they can do things besides being in the kitchen.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32- Mm-hmm.- Women were in the house. That was their job.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36They just kept the house, kept the kids.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39If they had to work, they would go out and clean offices
0:14:39 > 0:14:42and things like that.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Unless you were lucky to have a bit more brains,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48I don't know, to be taught a job.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Women were sort of second class, I suppose.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54And I think as far as pay goes,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58I think if a woman does a man's job,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02- she should be paid the same amount of money.- Mm.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Not less because she's a woman.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09'Job opportunities for women have changed dramatically
0:15:09 > 0:15:11'over the course of Diana's lifetime.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15'100 years ago, there were very few employment opportunities for women
0:15:15 > 0:15:18'and even when men and women did have the same job,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20'they didn't get the same pay.'
0:15:20 > 0:15:23In the Victorian times, most women who worked would have been
0:15:23 > 0:15:26factory workers or domestic servants.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31In fact, domestic service was the largest employer in Britain until the 1940s.
0:15:31 > 0:15:32You would earn very little,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36far less than your brothers would have done in the local factory.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41Were there any jobs at all where a man and a woman would do exactly the same thing?
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Both middle-class men and women went into teaching.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48A young woman starting out her teaching career
0:15:48 > 0:15:52in her early 20s would have received about half
0:15:52 > 0:15:53of what a man would have earned.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55In addition to that,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58a woman had to give up teaching as soon as she married.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03There were so few sources of income for working-class women
0:16:03 > 0:16:07that they sometimes put themselves in danger to earn extra money.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Even those who worked during the day in a factory
0:16:09 > 0:16:13or even as a domestic servant still had to supplement their earnings
0:16:13 > 0:16:16by going out at night onto the streets
0:16:16 > 0:16:21and prostitution was the main way they could earn a few shillings.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27In 1914, the First World War led to a dramatic shift
0:16:27 > 0:16:30in women's position in society.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Women took on men's roles to keep the country going
0:16:32 > 0:16:35but when the war ended, most went back to their old positions.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39It was the Second World War that was the real revolution.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Women joined the forces...
0:16:42 > 0:16:45..and they really came into their own after that.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51They made themselves felt, which is as it should be.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54I mean, you are equal.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Women do most things they put their mind to.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02In World War Two, when men went to fight,
0:17:02 > 0:17:03women filled their jobs,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06including jobs that had always been considered exclusively male,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09such as mechanics or engineers.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13But even with better jobs, women did not enjoy equal pay and conditions
0:17:13 > 0:17:19and once again, they took direct action to bring about change.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Women have long had to fight for their rights
0:17:21 > 0:17:23with the trade union movement in the workplace.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26But one of the strikes that had the biggest impact
0:17:26 > 0:17:29was of course in Dagenham where we had the campaign
0:17:29 > 0:17:33actually not just for that workplace but to get equal pay for all women.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38Dagenham, near London, was where Ford had its biggest car factory.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42In 1968, a group of female sewing machinists
0:17:42 > 0:17:46who made car upholstery went on strike because they wanted equal pay
0:17:46 > 0:17:49and to be classed as skilled workers.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51'I'm here in Dagenham to meet Vera and Gwen,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55'two of the women involved in that ground-breaking strike.'
0:17:55 > 0:17:59When we started at Ford, we were always classed as semi-skilled.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03- So all the men you were working with were earning more than you?- Yes.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05You didn't feel right.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07You think, "Well, you know, they're getting more money
0:18:07 > 0:18:09"and we are slogging away here..."
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Because, I mean, it was a slog, wasn't it, to get the work out?
0:18:12 > 0:18:15I mean, it was no mucking about.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18- You had to sit there and work. We didn't blame the men.- No, no.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Blame Ford.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23So when did you decide that strike was the way to go?
0:18:23 > 0:18:26When it came to 1968,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30the union said the only way you were going to get your money
0:18:30 > 0:18:32and be recognised as skilled workers,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35you have got to go out on strike, didn't they?
0:18:35 > 0:18:39So we said, "Yes, we're willing to do that."
0:18:39 > 0:18:42So we had the meeting one morning and we all walked out, didn't we?
0:18:42 > 0:18:45- Walked out. - And Ford was so shocked.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49The Dagenham women's strike lasted three weeks,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53brought the factory to a standstill and won them equal pay.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Largely thanks to the strike,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58the Equal Pay Act came into force in 1970.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02'All women doing the same jobs as men were now to be paid the same.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06'But it took another 14 years and another strike before the Dagenham
0:19:06 > 0:19:10'women were finally recognised as skilled workers.'
0:19:11 > 0:19:15- And would you say that you are proud feminists?- Erm, yes, I think so.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18- Don't you?- Yeah. - SHE LAUGHS
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Gwen and Vera. Absolutely incredible.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22To think about the amount of courage
0:19:22 > 0:19:25they must have needed to do such a thing
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and the fact they helped bring about the Equal Pay Act. Amazing.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Equality in the workplace has been achieved now, right?
0:19:31 > 0:19:34I mean, we've seen a lot of progress.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37When my mum first started work, it was still legal to pay women
0:19:37 > 0:19:41much less than men for doing the same job. That's now illegal.
0:19:41 > 0:19:42The law has changed.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45However, we still know there's a big pay gap,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47in reality, between men and women.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49About 20% pay gap with women paid less than men.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51That is not fair.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56We are seeing more and more women go into different jobs and professions
0:19:56 > 0:19:59but actually, in a lot of areas, although they get promoted
0:19:59 > 0:20:02a bit at first, we find they don't actually make it into the top jobs.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04That's not fair.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06We should be smashing through that glass ceiling
0:20:06 > 0:20:09because what we know is we should be using women's talents,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11partly because it is fair to women
0:20:11 > 0:20:13but also cos it's good for the economy as well.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17I guess I've just never thought before about how we got
0:20:17 > 0:20:19to where we are now.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Men and women are deemed as equals in the workplace
0:20:22 > 0:20:26but it's because a group of women decided to fight hard for this.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30They wanted equality in the workplace for men and women
0:20:30 > 0:20:34and laws were passed so that we could earn equal, too.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39I guess I'm just really grateful but we're not quite there yet
0:20:39 > 0:20:41and maybe there is room for improvement.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13So, what do you think?
0:21:13 > 0:21:15I absolutely love shopping and I love clothes
0:21:15 > 0:21:20but if I was to wear anything even slightly as revealing as this over 100 years ago,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22I would have been branded a weak-minded woman
0:21:22 > 0:21:24or even a prostitute.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Life is definitely very different today
0:21:32 > 0:21:35but have attitudes towards women really changed?
0:21:35 > 0:21:39'I want to find out how we became the liberated society of today
0:21:39 > 0:21:42'and I'm going to start way back with the Victorians,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46'when to have a baby outside marriage was considered a heinous crime.'
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Certainly, by the end of the 19th century,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54beginning of the 20th century, they introduced legislation
0:21:54 > 0:21:57on what is called the Mental Deficiency Bill,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Mental Deficiency Act.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02And under this Act, a young woman,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04a girl who was seen as sexually promiscuous,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06she might actually have even been raped
0:22:06 > 0:22:08and perhaps had an illegitimate child,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13could be put in a home for mental defects, as they were called.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Basically, they were prisons. So, pretty terrible places.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20They would send you mad if you weren't mad already.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22She might be locked away indefinitely and in fact,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25this law wasn't finally abolished until 1959
0:22:25 > 0:22:28and then they discovered some women who had been put in there
0:22:28 > 0:22:31as young girls and, you know, institutionalised by that time.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Absolutely shocking.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37I just can't imagine how different the world must have been
0:22:37 > 0:22:39back then for women.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42To be labelled as mad, maybe put into a mental asylum
0:22:42 > 0:22:45just for thinking about sex, let alone doing it on your own terms.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Just as wartime had changed attitudes to women in work,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55it also started to change attitudes towards women and sex.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58But the biggest change came later, in the 1960s,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03when cultural rebellion and the introduction of the pill
0:23:03 > 0:23:05brought with it a social revolution.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Women no longer wanted to wait for a man to marry them.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13They wanted to make their own decisions,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16shape their own lives, have relationships on their own terms
0:23:16 > 0:23:18and, just like the suffragettes,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22the feminists of the '60s and '70s fought for what they believed in.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Sally Alexander was one of them,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28angry at how women were viewed in a male-dominated society.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Why were we always, you know,
0:23:30 > 0:23:38denigrated as birds or girls or, you know, pin-ups or looked at,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41judged just by our sexual attractiveness.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44And we wanted, you know,
0:23:44 > 0:23:50the same right to sexual freedom but also respect as men had.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Beauty pageants where women paraded in swimming costumes
0:23:54 > 0:23:58before mostly male judges portrayed women as beautiful objects
0:23:58 > 0:24:00to be gawped at and took no account
0:24:00 > 0:24:02of what was going on between their ears.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06In 1970 at the Miss World competition at the Royal Albert Hall,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Sally Alexander and other activists decided to protest
0:24:09 > 0:24:13against this very male view of women.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16We did feel that we had more to offer the world
0:24:16 > 0:24:20than just beautiful bodies and the point of the demonstration
0:24:20 > 0:24:24was to break up the spectacle of Miss World.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It was Sunday night viewing, family viewing,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31so we knew we would get maximum disruption of a live television show
0:24:31 > 0:24:33and our slogan was,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37"We're not beautiful, we're not ugly, we're angry".
0:24:37 > 0:24:42So we leapt up, sort of demented with anxiety and nerves
0:24:42 > 0:24:45and literally shaking all over,
0:24:45 > 0:24:47clambered over all the people in our seats,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50because we were sitting in the middle of the row.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Tried to climb up onto the stage and then four policemen got hold of me
0:24:54 > 0:24:59and I can't remember very much but I just remember being pulled out.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Today, ours is a far more liberal society
0:25:03 > 0:25:05than it was in the 1950s,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07when sex outside marriage was frowned upon,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11illegitimacy was taboo, and gay sex was illegal.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Sex is now everywhere, from pop videos to adverts and the Internet,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18we are bombarded with sexual images.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21'I went to meet campaigner Kat Banyard, who is
0:25:21 > 0:25:25'concerned about how women are portrayed in the media today.'
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Since the 1970s, there has been a huge expansion of the global
0:25:28 > 0:25:33sex industry and that includes stripping, prostitution
0:25:33 > 0:25:35and crucially, pornography.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40Pornography today has never been easier or cheaper to access
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and as a result of that, our culture has literally been pornified.
0:25:44 > 0:25:51The reality is that a society which relentlessly treats
0:25:51 > 0:25:56women as sex objects and portrays them just as inanimate objects
0:25:56 > 0:26:00is a society where women are more likely
0:26:00 > 0:26:04to experience rape and sexual violence.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07We need to reclaim the spaces that the pornographers
0:26:07 > 0:26:10and pornographic ideals are taking up,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14whether that be a display of lads' mags in supermarkets
0:26:14 > 0:26:17or the advertisements that we see in our magazines.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22We can change that but it will take people to get out onto the street and demand it.
0:26:22 > 0:26:23I'm just so shocked.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Men in Victorian times wanted women to be passive
0:26:26 > 0:26:28and now they want us to be sex objects.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31It kind of feels like we haven't come very far at all
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and the threat of sexual violence is never far away.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Recent UK surveys state that one in five women
0:26:39 > 0:26:42between 16 and 59 have been the victim
0:26:42 > 0:26:46of a sexual offence or attempted offence since the age of 16.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Against this background of sexual violence,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55in 2011 women around the world took to the streets in protest
0:26:55 > 0:26:58at what a Toronto policeman had said.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01He told a group of law students that to avoid being raped,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04women should avoid dressing like sluts.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07These protests were called Slut Walks.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09The whole point of the march was just to say,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12come in whatever you feel comfortable in.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Some people chose to wear their underwear or not wear very much
0:27:16 > 0:27:18basically to get rid of this whole idea that
0:27:18 > 0:27:22if you're not wearing that much
0:27:22 > 0:27:25then you are somehow responsible for violence that happens to you.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27You know, rape can happen to any of us.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29I think it was a real victory
0:27:29 > 0:27:32because the whole point of victim-blaming is to silence women
0:27:32 > 0:27:35and to make them feel ashamed, you know, like they can't talk about
0:27:35 > 0:27:39the violence cos no-one is going to believe them or they are going to get blamed for it.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42For example, one woman had a sign that said, "When I was raped
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"I was wearing a tracksuit and a really big puffy jacket
0:27:45 > 0:27:49"and now I'm wearing my underwear and I wasn't responsible for it then
0:27:49 > 0:27:52"and if it happened now, I still wouldn't be responsible.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55"It would be, you know, the only blame should be on the person
0:27:55 > 0:27:57"who actually decided to rape me."
0:27:57 > 0:28:03Anastasia and the Slut Walkers have brought the history of women's protest bang up-to-date.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06I reckon the suffragettes would have been proud of them.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09We've learned about some of the most incredible moments in history.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11I feel inspired
0:28:11 > 0:28:14and I've actually felt quite emotional about some of it.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16As a woman I have many choices,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20opportunity and, most importantly, freedom.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23It's only because women have continuously got together
0:28:23 > 0:28:25to fight for radical change.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29It was definitely worth it 100 years ago and it still is today.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd