Fifty years of equality: lessons from Zelophehad’s daughters

Writer Michelle Tant marks 50 years since the Sex Discrimination Act, linking modern equality laws to the biblical justice shown in Zelophehad’s daughters.

It’s been just 50 short years since women were permitted in law to own property or open a bank account without a male signature or guarantor. Until the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, women lacked independent economic status and this exacerbated other inequalities experienced by women for example being able to leave domestic abuse situations.

The 1975 Act paved the way for the 2010 Equality Act, enshrining in law freedoms such as being able to breastfeed in public without fear of being moved on. These rights on the surface seeming to be unrelated but both represent a woman’s ability to go about a usual life unrestrained by archaic norms.