Everything about Sex Disqualification Removal Act 1919 totally explained
The
Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. V c. 71) was an
Act of Parliament in the
United Kingdom. It became law when it received
Royal Assent on
23 December 1919.
Provisions of the Act
The basic purpose of the Act was, as stated in its
long title, "... to amend the Law with respect to disqualification on account of sex", which it achieved in four short sections and one schedule. Its broad aim was achieved by section 1, which stated that:
The Crown was given the power to regulate the admission of women to the
civil service by
orders in council, and judges were permitted to control the gender composition of
juries. By section 2, women were to be admitted as
solicitors after serving three years only if they possessed a University degree which would have qualified them if male, or if they'd fulfilled all the requirements of a degree at a University which did not, at the time, admit women to degrees. By section 2, no statute or charter of a University was to preclude University authorities from regulating the admission of women to membership or degrees. By section 4, any orders in council,
royal charters, or
statutory provisions which were inconsistent with this Act were to cease to have effect. However, it took until December 1922 for a female solicitor to be appointed.
The Act was, by the standards of its time, astonishingly broad. It only addressed three areas specifically - the Civil Service, the courts, and the Universities - leaving all other areas to the sweeping alterations made by section 1.
Francis Bennion later described it as "splendidly general", arguing that it went "further in emancipating women than [did] the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975".
However, the Act was rarely invoked by the courts - the first court case to rule based on it was
Nagle v. Fielden in 1966. The one significant ruling as to the extent of the Act wasn't in a court of law, but rather in the
House of Lords, where the
Committee for Privileges was asked by
Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda to rule if the Act's provisions for exercising "any public function" extended to permitting a woman to sit in the House as a
peeress in her own right. After some debate, it was held 22-4 that it did not.
Much of the Act has been repealed, although the first part of section 1 remains in force.
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