section 4, any orders in council, royal charters, or statutory provisions which were inconsistent with this Act were to cease to have effect. 1920: The Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act 1920. 1928: Women received the vote on the same terms as men (over the age of 21), as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1928. 1929: The Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 was enacted; it is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created the offence of child destruction. It also amended the law so that an abortion carried out in good faith, for the sole purpose of preserving the life of the mother, would not be an offence. 1931: A 1-week strike of 10,000 non-unionised factory worker women, led by communist activist Jessie Eden, caused an explosion of English women joining trade unions. 1932-1944: The BBC had a marriage bar between 1932 and 1944, although it was a partial ban and was not fully enforced due to the BBC's ambivalent views on the policy. 1937: The Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 extended the grounds for divorce, which then only included adultery, to include unlawful desertion for two years or more, cruelty, and incurable insanity. 1938: Dr. Aleck Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself in to authorities. 1944: In the UK, the marriage bar was removed for all teachers in 1944. 1944: The BBC had a marriage bar between 1932 and 1944, although it was a partial ban and was not fully enforced due to the BBC's ambivalent views on the policy. 1946: The marriage bar was abolished in 1946 for the Home Civil Service; until then women were required to resign when they married. 1945–1970 1949: Lloyds Bank had a marriage bar that meant that female employees were classified as supplementary staff, rather than permanent. The bank abolished its marriage bar in 1949. 1952: Equal pay for female teachers was required by law. 1954: Equal pay for women in the civil service was required by law. 1958: The Life Peerages Act 1958 allowed for the creation of female peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The first such women peers took their seats on 21 October 1958. 1961: The birth control pill was introduced in the UK on the National Health Service in 1961 for