1950 |
Elizabeth David (1913-1992) publishes Mediterranean Food, her first cookery book. |
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1950 |
Olive Hirst (1912-1994) is appointed to the board of management of Sells Ltd, making her the first woman on the board of an advertising agency. The following year she becames Managing Director. |
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1950 |
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1950 |
The photographer Grace Robertson (born 1930) is taken on by Picture Post. She begins her documentation of everyday life in Britain. |
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1951 |
Doris Lessing (born 1919) publishes her first novel The Grass is Singing. |
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1951 |
The American photographer Eve Arnold is the first woman to work for the celebrated Magnum photographic agency. |
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1952 |
Molecular biologist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) takes up her post at King's College and becomes key in the discovery of DNA. |
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1953 |
American aviator Jacqueline Cochrane (1910 - 1980) is the first woman to break the sound barrier. |
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1953 |
Equal pay is introduced for women teachers. |
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1953 |
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900- 1990) becomes the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly. |
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1953 |
After being internationally acclaimed for many years, artist Frida Kahlo (1910-54) is finally invited to exhibit in her own country, Mexico. |
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1953 |
Lita Rosa becomes the first woman in Britain to reach Number One in the charts with How much is that Doggy in the Window. |
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1953 |
Ann Davison (born 1912) becomes the first woman to sail single-handed across the Atlantic. |
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1953 |
American sex therapist Alfred Kinsey publishes his highly controversial report, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female. |
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1954 |
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) publishes her first novel, Under the Net. |
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1955 |
Mary Quant (born 1934) opens her shop Bazaar on the King's Road, London. |
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1955 |
The Women of the Year Lunch is founded by Tony Lothian. |
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1955 |
Dame Evelyn Sharp becomes first woman permanent secretary in the civil service as Head of the Housing Ministry. |
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1955 |
Rosa Parkes (born 1913) makes history on 1 December when she refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus, in Montgomery, Alabama. This sparks off the black civil rights movement in America. |
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1955 |
Barbara Mandell is the first woman to read the news on ITN. |
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1955 |
The government agrees to equal pay for civil servants, though this is not fully implemented until 1973. |
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1955 |
On 13 July convicted murderer Ruth Ellis is the last woman to be hanged in Britain. |
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1956 |
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1956 |
The National Childbirth Trust is founded to prepare couples for childbirth and parenting. |
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1957 |
Journalist Mary Stott (1907 - 2002) sets up the Guardian Women's Page. She remains editor until 1972. |
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1958 |
Claudia Jones (1915-1964) sets up the West Indian Gazette, and the Notting Hill Carnival. |
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1958 |
Hilda Harding becomes the first woman bank manager at Barclays in Hanover Street, London. |
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1958 |
For the first time ultrasound is available to examine unborn babies. |
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1958 |
The Life Peerages Act entitle women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time. On 21 October Baroness Swanbourough, Lady Reading and Baroness Barbara Wooton are the first to take their seats. |
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