Reverend Libby Lane has become the first female bishop.

She was appointed the new Bishop of Stockport in a service in York Minster.

The process ended centuries of male-only bishops in the Church of England.

In the Roman Catholic Church, women are still not able to become priests.

In 2015, there are still areas of life in the UK where equality is an ambition rather than a reality.

Women still can't...

...serve in close combat

Women in the army are currently not allowed to serve in the infantry or armoured corps.

While British women have already served on the front line in places like Afghanistan in support roles, they cannot serve where the primary aim is to "close with and kill the enemy".

The government is thinking about changing this following a report.

The defence minister has ordered an 18-month review of training procedures and the physical demands of fighting to ensure the change can be made without damaging female soldiers' health.

...compete in sports in the same way men do

Cycling

Female cyclists aren't guaranteed a minimum wage and are only allowed to race up to 140km (87 miles) a day on the road, while men are allowed to ride 280km (174 miles).

There has been no Tour de France for women since 2009.

A new event this year was set up this year for women: La Course by Le Tour de France.

However, former Olympic champion Nicole Cooke says it is a "scandal" there is no Tour for women.

In her retirement speech she made her feelings on sexism in cycling clear, saying: "It is somewhat of a handicap trying to demonstrate just how good you are on a bike when you are not allowed to ride."

Swimming

While both men and women take part in the long distance 10km marathon open water race, only women can take part in the 800m freestyle compared with the men's 1,500m freestyle race.

Additionally men's synchronised swimming is not given a place in the Olympics.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse was first played in the UK by women at St Leonards boarding school in St Andrews in 1896.

However, unlike the men's game, no contact was allowed.

This remains unchanged 124 years later.

Bowls

Some bowling leagues have male-only policies.

Most recently the Shropshire Premier Bowling League hit headlines for its "strict male-only policy".

The president, who is standing down, claimed men were better players than women.

Prize money

A BBC Sport study in October found that 30% of sports pay men more prize money than women.

Out of 35 sports that pay prize money, 25 pay equally and 10 do not.

Football was one of the sports with the biggest disparities, including the World Cup and the Premier League.

...expect equal pay

The good news is that the last statistics showed that the average wage gap for women and men in full time work is 9.4%, which is the narrowest gap since the two wages began being compared in 1997.

The bad news is that once part-time work is included, that difference increases to 19.1%, which means that women earn 84p for every pound a man earns.

The top three types of profession where the gender pay gap was highest were so-called 'skilled jobs' which includes electricians, florists and chefs.

Workers who operated machinery came next. The gender pay gap was third highest among managers, senior officials and directors.

...expect an equal number of female faces in the boardroom

Currently 23% of directors on FTSE 100 company boards are women, according to BoardWatch, which tracks the appointments of women directors.

In the top 250 companies, it found only 17.7% have women directors.

The government has a target of 25% female representation on boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2016.

...be judged for their ability over their appearance

Clare Balding said it would be great if women broadcasters could turn up to work in their pyjamas to prove a point about females being judged on what they look like.

She spoke out about the issue saying: "Women being judged on appearance: it stultifies talent.

"If you did that to men we would be caught up in a maelstrom - hah, a male-strom - of nonsense."

Meanwhile down under, an Australian broadcaster turned up to work in the same suit for a year and nobody noticed.

Karl Stefanovic wore the outfit to make a point about the sexism he said his female colleagues faced.

"But women, they wear the wrong colour and they get pulled up. They say the wrong thing and there's thousands of tweets written about them," he said.

In a 2013, a report showed that 87% of women thought they were judged more on their appearance than their ability.

The report Equality for Girls was based on a survey of more than 1,200 girls and young women aged seven to 21.

But we're making progress...

Despite there still being some way to go to complete equality, women in the UK are making gains.

As Emma Watson said at the Davos World Economic Forum last week: "It is my belief that there is a greater understanding than ever that women need to be equal participants in our homes, in our societies, in our governments, and in our work places."

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