The Marriage Bar in the UK: Case Studies from the BBC and Teaching

Date: Tuesday, 2 December 2025 – 5.30 to 7.15pm (Tea/coffee at 5.30pm and drinks/nibbles from 7.15pm, for those who wish to stay on)

Room M212 (second floor, Marylebone Building), University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

About this event:

The ‘marriage bar’ was a policy in the UK that required women to resign from their jobs on marriage, notably in professions like banking, the civil service and teaching. The rationale was that married women would want to concentrate on home and family while men were the principal breadwinners. Our seminar this evening focuses on the challenges and eventual abolition of the marriage bar in broadcasting and teaching.

Programme:

5.40pm: Welcome: Michael Gold and Linda Clarke

5.45-6.15pm: Kate Murphy (Bournemouth University)

A Marriage Bar of ‘Convenience’: Married Women in the Early BBC, 1922-1939

When the BBC was established in 1922, it was an unusual organisation for the times because it didn’t actively discriminate against women. Indeed, several women reached senior posts. Salary grades for men and women were the same and many married women were recruited. In 1929 it was one of the earliest organisations to introduce maternity leave. Yet, in 1932, it introduced a marriage bar. It was not, however, a full bar. Those women deemed ‘exceptional’ could remain, decided by a Marriage Tribunal. This paper considers the BBC’s attitudes towards married women in the years before the Second World War.

6.15-6.45pm: Harriet Samuels (University of Westminster)

Legal Challenges to the Marriage Bar in the 1920s: Trade Unions, Feminism and Strategic Litigation

During the 1920s there were a series of case test cases brought by married women teachers threatened with dismissal after the imposition of a marriage bar, prohibiting them from working in schools controlled by local authorities in England and Wales. This paper considers the role of the trade unions in three marriage bar cases in the 1920s and examines their attitude towards the litigation, their motive for bringing the challenges, the obstacles they faced and how the antagonism between the NUWT and the NUT impacted the strategies adopted. In addition to contributing to feminist legal history, the research provides insight into broader questions about the wisdom of trade unions engaging in strategic litigation as part of a campaign to improve workers’ rights.

6.45-7.15pm: General discussion

7.15pm: Close, followed by drinks in room MG14 (ground floor, Marylebone Building).

Refreshments will be served at the start and end of this event.

Please book your ticket before 4pm on Monday, 1 December 2025.

About the Speakers:

Kate Murphy: Is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University. Prior to her academic career, she worked for the BBC for 24 years, primarily as a ‘Woman’s Hour’ producer. Her book on Hilda Matheson was published in 2023. ‘Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC’ was published in 2016.

Harriet Samuels: Is a Reader in Law at Westminster Law School. Her research sits at the intersection of Public Law and Human Rights and draws on feminist legal theory and methods to explore the strategic use of law as a tool for social change.

PLEASE READ:

• Please ensure you book your ticket before attending. Tickets are only valid for this event on the date and time advertised.
• Your data will be processed according to the University of Westminster Data Protection Policy
• For further information, please email Michael Gold (m.gold@rhul.ac.uk) or Linda Clarke (clarkel@westminaster.ac.uk)

The London section of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) organises regular seminars on important issues concerning industrial relations in the UK and internationally. The seminars provide an opportunity to air and discuss these in an open forum and consider their implications. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

The Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) is a University of Westminster cross-school research centre concerned with the critical study of the production of the built environment as a social, environmental, and historical process, what this means for labour, communities, cities and nature, and finding innovative ways to construct a just, inclusive and sustainable society. Its extension activities are open to all.