4 December 1961

The contraceptive pill was launched in 1961. The pill suppresses women's fertility using the hormones progestogen or oestrogen (or both). In 1961 it was available to married women only, but availability was extended in 1967. The impact was revolutionary for women and men but also revealed that sexual liberation did not always mean women's liberation, as Beatrix Campbell describes.

27 October 1967
The 1967 Act legalised abortion in the UK, for women who were up to 24 weeks pregnant. Two consenting doctors had to agree that continuing the pregnancy would be harmful either to the woman's physical or mental health, or to the child's physical or mental health when it was born.

7 June 1968
In 1968, 850 women machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham went on strike over equal pay. They disputed the classification of their work as unskilled - a label which seemed to justify them being paid less than their male colleagues.

February 1970
A strike by Leeds women clothing workers was initiated after the union accepted a low wage rise that discriminated against women. 20,000 women from 45 factories marched in protest. The event was later made into the Play for Today film Leeds - United!

20 November 1970
The Miss World beauty pageant had been held annually in the UK since 1951. Women from all over the world competed within their own countries, and then came to London to compete for 'Miss World' crown. Feminists threw flour-bombs at the 1970 Miss World contest in 1970, protesting against what they saw as the objectification of women. They found the very idea of judging women solely on their looks to be insulting and undermining. Jo Robinson was one of the women who took part in the protest.

15 - 17 October 1971 The four WLM demands discussed in 1970 at the conference in Oxford were passed in 1971 in Skegness.

25-26 March 1972 (Manchester) November 1972 (London)
National WLM conferences were held in Manchester and London. Debates arose around domestic labour and the 'need to liberate women from -- or as some see it to give just pay for -- work done both inside and outside the home.' The four demands also continued to be debated.

1972
The Women's Liberation Movement sought to unionise night cleaners, who worked in dangerous and low-paid jobs. Two strikes in the early 1970s resulted in greater awareness of the cleaners' (mainly women) working conditions. Unionisation was difficult, especially as cleaning work was increasingly privatised during the 1970s. Sally Alexander was active in supporting the women cleaners.

12 November 1975 The Sex Discrimination Act was passed to 'render unlawful certain kinds of sex discrimination and discrimination on the ground of marriage, and establish a Commission with the function of working towards the elimination of such discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity between men and women generally; and for related purposes.' Lesley Abdela talks about open sex discrimination in the workplace before the legislation, and Sue Lopez discusses the case of 11-year-old Theresa Bennett, who was banned from playing football and took her case to court under the sex discrimination legislation.

12 November 1975
The Employment Protection Act made statutory maternity pay a requirement for employers, and legislated against dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy.

26 October 1976
This act enabled married women to obtain a court order against their violent husbands without divorce or separation proceedings. A court could order a man out of the matrimonial home, whether or not he owned it or tenancy was in his name. Problems arose because this protection did not apply to unmarried women.