AN OXFORD festival celebrating the achievements and struggles of women will this year reflect on 50 years since a pair of momentous milestones.

The Oxford International Women’s Festival 2020 will feature two weeks of events across the city based on the theme 'threads of liberation'.

Programme coordinator Tracy Walsh explained the theme for the 31st festival was chosen to mark it being half a century since the first national Women's Liberation Conference, which was held in the city, and the passing of the Equal Pay Act.

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She said: "We wanted to look back at how far we have come since then and reflect on where things are now."

The festival will kick off on February 29 with an event bringing together activists from that inaugural Women’s Liberation Conference, which was held at Ruskin College's old Walton Street home in February 1970.

Ms Walsh said: "We've got people like Sally Alexander coming, who was a student at Ruskin and helped organise the conference as well as campaigners who are active now."

The historian went on that year to protest the Miss World beauty competition in London, an event which has been made into a film due out in March starring Keira Knightley as Alexander.

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In May 1970, the UK government also passed the Equal Pay Act and for the first time, it became illegal to discriminate against female workers on the basis of their sex.

Equal pay was one of four key demands of the original Women’s Liberation Conference, alongside improved education, twenty-four hour nurseries,free contraception and abortion on demand.

The conference built on the work of early feminists, which had focused primarily on legal and voting rights for women.

Ms Walsh said: "There has been a lot of progress but the cases of pay discrimination recently like journalist Samira Ahmed show we're not there yet."

She added the festival would also discuss modern issues in the workplace like sexual harassment in the wake of the Me Too movement, and the need for employers to consider the support women experiencing the menopause may need.

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The main event, to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, will be an evening of dance, poetry and comedy on Friday, March 6.

It will explore how the struggle for women’s rights is viewed by different cultures and age groups and how it has changed over time.

Ms Walsh said: "We wanted to look at the idea of threads in a more literal way and explore expectations of how women should dress and whether clothing can be empowering."

For a full list of events go to oiwf.org/events/ or follow the Oxford International Women's Festival's Facebook page.