1974 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The women's 400 metres at the 1974 European Athletics Championships was held in Rome, Italy, at Stadio Olimpico on 2, 3, and 4 September 1974.^[1]

Gold	Riitta Salin  Finland
Silver	Ellen Streidt  East Germany
Bronze	Rita Wilden  West Germany

4 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Riitta Salin	Finland	50.14	NR CR
	Ellen Streidt	East Germany	50.69	NR
	Rita Wilden	West Germany	50.88	NR
4	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	51.22	NR
5	Angelika Handt	East Germany	51.24
6	Karoline Käfer	Austria	51.77	NR
7	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.61
8	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	53.01

3 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ellen Streidt	East Germany	51.40	CR Q
2	Rita Wilden	West Germany	51.46	Q
3	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	51.65	Q
4	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	51.87	Q
5	Krystyna Kacperczyk	Poland	52.07
6	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	52.85
7	Rosine Wallez	Belgium	53.02
8	Trudy Wunderink	Netherlands	53.46

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Riitta Salin	Finland	51.46	Q
2	Angelika Handt	East Germany	51.67	Q
3	Karoline Käfer	Austria	52.14	NR Q
4	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.18	Q
5	Ingrīda Barkāne	Soviet Union	52.52
6	Danuta Piecyk	Poland	52.93
7	Jozefína Čerchlanová	Czechoslovakia	53.77
8	Natalya Sokolova	Soviet Union	53.82

2 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Natalya Sokolova	Soviet Union	53.21	Q
2	Jozefína Čerchlanová	Czechoslovakia	53.23	Q
3	Danuta Piecyk	Poland	53.30	Q
4	Donna Hartley	Great Britain	53.49
5	Dominique Forest	France	55.35

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Riitta Salin	Finland	51.88	Q
2	Angelika Handt	East Germany	52.21	Q
3	Krystyna Kacperczyk	Poland	52.76	Q
4	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	53.28	q
5	Trudy Wunderink	Netherlands	53.30	q
6	Claire Walsh	Ireland	54.15

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ellen Streidt	East Germany	51.79	Q
2	Rita Wilden	West Germany	51.91	Q
3	Karoline Käfer	Austria	52.20	Q
4	Rosine Wallez	Belgium	52.82	NR q
5	Ingrīda Barkāne	Soviet Union	53.01	q
6	Genowefa Błaszak	Poland	53.34

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	52.30	Q
2	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.46	Q
3	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	53.11	Q
4	Pirjo Häggman	Finland	53.43
5	Karola Claus	West Germany	54.26
6	Iren Orosz	Hungary	54.90

According to an unofficial count, 23 athletes from 14 countries participated in the event.