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1919

America

..... the Feminist Congress met for the first time in New York

..... the International Congress of Working Women was established in Washington DC

..... Alice Hamilton became the first woman professor at Harvard University

..... the Pulitzer Prize for poetry was won by Margaret Widdemer for Old Road To Paradise

United Kingdom

..... Nancy Astor became the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Common

..... the Sex Disqualification Removal Act stated that no-one should be disqualified from holding public, civil or judicial posts by their sex or fact of marriage and women were allowed to be appointed as JPs and to sit on the magistrates bench

..... the National Union of Women's Suffrages Societies changed its name to the National Union of Societies of Equal Citizenship. Millicent Fawcett retired and the leadership was taken over by Eleanor Rathbone. Its main effort was specific one-issue campaigns i.e divorce law reform, equal guardianship rights for men and women and equal voting rights

..... Eglantyne Jebb founded the Save The Children fund after seeing the plight of children starving in Austria as a result of the allied blockades at the end of the First World War. She was arrested for publishing a leaflet drawing attention to the needs of the thousands of starving children but nevertheless organised a public meeting to launch the appeal at the Royal Albert Hall. In its first year the fund received over £400,000 in donations

..... Suzanne Lenglen won the Wimbledon Ladies Championship

..... registration of nurses became law and the first International Council of Nurses was established

Around The World

..... The Netherlands ..... the vote was given to women

..... Russia ..... The Zhenotdel - the world's FIRST government department for women. Its director  was Alexandra Kollantai until she undertook her ambassadorial positions in 1923

Dated items

November 30th ..... FRANCE ..... women voted for the first time in general elections