The Representation of the People Act of 1918 granted the vote to women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification. The same Act gave the vote to all men over the age of 21.
in 1920 the Borough Polytechnic suggested that women might be interested in studying subjects outside the Women's Department. One of those subjects was Engineering Drawing, although only one woman took the class - Ida Bould. She was the first woman to study in the Engineering Department and had the highest average mark of her class of 70.
Dorothee Pullinger elected the first female member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers. Pullinger was a director and manager of Galloway Motors Ltd which produced a car designed for women. Her apprenticeship scheme for women was two years shorter than men as she believed women learnt faster
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Electrical Engineering was not one of the subjects that women were encouraged to study, but in 1923-24 Cornelia Schenk and Annie Reynolds both took this class. Both women studied Physics as well and Annie also took a class in Magnetism & Electricity. For the next few years, Electrical Engineering subjects were more popular than Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic.
Mabel Matthews was the first president
1928 Equal Franchise Act gives women vote on equal terms with men (aged 21)
14 technical colleges in UK offered training courses for women engineers (WES 1930).
Quote from Prospectus: Simplified Engineering Course for Women: Syllabus 14w Course specifically arranged in conjunction with the Women’s Engineering Society “for women who desire to become qualified as candidates for Inspectorships of Factories, Welfare Supervisors, Administrative and Managerial Assistants in Industry, and Secretaries to Engineers, Forewomen, Tracers etc”
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First woman to be elected a Companion of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)
Johnson is most famous as a pilot but she was also a qualified engineer and was active in encouraging women to seek out work in engineering related industries
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Elsie Hansford took an Engineering Workshop class at the Borough Polytechnic in 1935-35, winning the class prize. The 1939 register lists her as a draughtsman and a designer of a small electrical switchboard, and she later worked for the Institute of Electrical Engineers. According to her records in the Women's Engineering Society, she was an AMIEE and a Bsc (Eng), and she later published this article: https://doi.og/10.1049/ep.1964.0040 In the same class, also winning a prize, was Kathleen Haddock, who in 1957 was awarded an MBE for her work in the inspectorate of factories.
Listed in the exam registers as Princess D Wiasemsky/Dorothea Rosalie Wiasemsky, she also won one of the class prizes.
Free and compulsory education for all up to age 14
By the amendment of the Education Act
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All medical schools opened to women, but quota system (around 20%) continues to operate
In 1958 the Borough Polytechnic appointed Eileen Nora Bullerwell as a Maths lecturer to start September 1948. In 1965 she was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Statistics. Eileen Bullerwell was born Eileen Field in 1922 and died in 2018. She studied Maths and Physics at Kings College, Newcastle. Some more information about her can be found in this article about her husband, Dr William Bullerwell FRS: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1978.0001
Elizabeth Joan Lee was the first female Science lecturer at the Borough Polytechnic. She taught Chemistry from 1949 to 1953. Miss Lee had a BSc (hons) and MSc in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool, as well as a Diploma in Education.
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Courses which were originally in the Women's Department were mostly transferred to the new department of "Catering, Nursing and Needlecrafts". Engineering no longer advertised courses specifically for women, although many women continue to do the courses - especially in Electrical Engineering.
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Established by the Aeronautical section of WES
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Carol Maddex was appointed and started 1 January 1964. She was a former Engineering student at the Polytechnic and was the first woman to teach Engineering at the Polytechnic (now LSBU).
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Borough Polytechnic amalgamates with Brixton School of Building, City of Westminster College and the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering to form the Polytechnic of the South Bank
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In academic year 1970-71, South Bank Polytechnic offered for the first time both an HND in Computer Studies and the British Computer Society exams, which were both taken by a number of women.
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Appointed by Polytechnic of the South Bank
Legislation protects female workers against dismissal because of pregnancy and establishes right to maternity leave and maternity pay for 6 weeks at 90% of normal pay
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