Has Equality in the UK Changed Over the Last 100 years?

In the last 100 years for the first time in the UK the Queen spoke on national television, free healthcare became readily available and widespread food shortages became a thing of the past. But has Britain progressed as much with equality and its treatment of women and ethnic minorities?

For starters, predating 1928 not all women could vote on the same terms as men. Although in 1918 women who were over the age of 30 and owned property could vote, with the Representation of People Act, they still didn’t get equal rights to the laws men had when qualifying for voting rights. The same Representation of People Act gave all men over 21 the right to vote regardless of what property they owned. It wasn’t until 1928 when the Equal Franchise Act was established that women got the same rights as men and were allowed to vote over the age of 21 with no property qualifications.

Women today, although not discriminated against directly in law, do face discrimination with things like the gender pay gap. This consequently means women in 2020 could earn 15.5% less than men in the same sector, doing the same job as them. If true gender equality is the goal, then society is still miles away from achieving it. 

Although gender equality has come far but not far enough, how far has race equality come since 100years ago?

40 years ago on the 27th August 1981 the stop and search laws, also known as the Suss Laws, were abolished. These laws were created in 1824 and enabled police officers to stop and search people and potentially arrest them if the police officers suspected them of committing a crime. This caused a lot of discrimination, especially with Black and ethnic minorities. It highlighted society’s prejudice against them. But when this law became illegal to practice with the Criminal Attempts Act of 1981 , which meant suspected persons couldn’t be committed without evidence, it showed a small progression in the treatment of ethnic minorities.

However in 2021, 40 years after Suss Laws were banned, we have a long way to go. African Americans are 25% more likely to be unemployed than their white peers.