Sixty years ago a Bradford woman asked for the support of her MP in righting a serious case of sex discrimination.

It got her nowhere because in the 1930s there were many places which closed their doors to women. The Bradford Stock Exchange was one of them.

Miss Edith Midgley, right, was that rarest of creatures for that time, a woman stockbroker - one of only a handful in the country. She had worked in the offices of a firm of leading Bradford brokers for 17 years before opening her own offices in Britannia House in 1933.

The business was successful, but Miss Midgley realised that it would be even more so if she could become a member of the Bradford Stock Exchange. Her application for membership in 1936 was the sixth successive one to be refused.

So she took her campaign for professional equality with male stockbrokers to her MP, Mr W Leach.

"The principal point," she told the Telegraph & Argus, "is that outside brokers include bucket-shop' proprietors. The fact that one is refused admission to an exchange, therefore, casts a certain reflection. Exchange members are regarded as beyond suspicion. Members of the general public may not be so certain about the unfortunate outsiders'."

Miss Midgley was the third woman broker in 11 years to be refused membership of an exchange. The other two were turned down by the London Stock Exchange.

The Women's Freedom League took up her case, issuing a statement which said that "Miss Midgley has all the qualifications, training, experience and financial stability but Bradford, apparently emulating the insufferable arrogance, blind prejudice and cowardly fear of women's competition of the London Brotherhood, continue to close its doors to her."

It was nearly three years before the MP to whom she had turned to help managed to raise the matter in the House of Commons, using the opportunity presented by a debate on the Prevention of Fraud (Investments) Bill.

He said that in Bradford there was a competent, qualified broker against whom no objection had been raised except that she was a woman. She had, therefore, been refused membership of Bradford Stock Exchange.

He added that to overcome the difficulty she employed as a partner a man who applied for membership instead. He too was turned down, because the head of the firm was a woman.

The story was taken up by the national press. Their reporters came flocking to Bradford. The T&A reports, on February 20, 1939: "Such is the etiquette of the stockbroking profession that Miss Midgley has to turn away all would-be interviewers - a fact appreciated by local Pressmen. But some of the national Pressmen evidently cannot take no' for an answer.

"On one occasion recently photographers from a national paper waited outside Miss Midgley's office for a couple of hours in the hope of snapping her against her wishes as she came out. She outwitted them, however, by slipping out at the back of the building."

The following year Miss Midgley told the T&A diary columnist that she thought it was deplorable that so many women were dependent upon others for advice on money matters, especially husbands. Women, she said, should not be allowed to assume a lack of responsibility in money matters, married or single.

As far as stockbroking as an occupation for a girl was concerned, she said she thought anyone interested in mathematics would do well. As an insight into character the job held a unique position.

The diarist noted: "Miss Midgley is an exceedingly entertaining and clever personality with whom it is good to talk."

Whether she eventually talked her way into the Bradford Stock Exchange, I'm afraid I can't tell you. The T&A cuttings library follows her story no further than that interview and there is nothing about her on the internet.

For a few brief pre-war years, though, she hit the headlines for her pioneering fight for sexual equality.