Welcome to the Woman's History Timeline. Click on a decade above to open a list of key events. Click on a key event to find out more about what happened. Click on LISTEN icons to hear interviews and special archive content about the period.
Victorian Times: for background on women's history during the Victorian era visit BBC Women's History and you can test your knowledge with the women's rights game.
Listen again to the Balloon debate that launched the Woman's Hour Time line and hear why the availability of contraception won the title of most influental event to impact on the lives of women.
Comments: If you have specialist knowledge of one of the events we have chosen, or would like to suggest an addition, please let us know with the form below.
Sarah was born in 1888. In 1913 she entered training with the Salvation Army. The family story is that she learned to speak Dutch in 3 months in order to go to Java after the First World War.
Her service record also indicates that she spoke Malay. She spent the next 20 years working in Java, working with Leprosy victims.
In 1942-3, when she was in her mid-50's she was interned in the Japanese POW camp in Djawa. Remarkably she survived and lived for another 13 years after the end of the Second World War.
