What are the key legal landmarks for women? What role did women and feminists play in bringing them about? What impact have they had on the lived experience of women? How might feminist legal history advance and transform legal scholarship?
The Women’s Legal Landmarks Project was a unique interdisciplinary collaboration involving over 80 feminist legal and history scholars identifying, researching and producing critical accounts of key legal ‘landmarks’ (events, cases and statutes) for women in the UK and Ireland. Each landmark marks an important stage or turning point in women’s engagement with law and law reform. Together they cover a range of topics, including the right to vote, sex discrimination, marital property, forced marriage, prostitution, rape, twitter abuse and the ordination of women bishops as well as the life stories of a number of women who were the first to undertake key legal roles and positions. The Project was led by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty.
A book ‘Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the history of women and law in the UK and Ireland’ containing all 93 landmarks is out now. For more information visit the publisher’s website.
Find out more about the Women’s Legal Landmarks Project
Project leaders, Rosemary Auchmuty and Erika Rackley, talk to Elizabeth Woodcraft about the aims, methodology and ambitions for the Project for PodAcademy
Get involved
The landmarks that appear on this website were chosen by participants in the Women’s Legal Landmarks Project.
If you think a key positive legal landmark for women is missing and you’d like to write about it – then get in touch.