3.2 - Women Flashcards
(70 cards)
1
Q
What were the political changes for women before WW2?
A
- 1918: gained vote rights at age 30
- 1929: age lowered to 21
- Failed to gain political voice (fewer female MPs)
- Political parties still used in subordinate capacities (delivering leaflets/ organisation, etc…)
2
Q
What changes did WW2 bring to the role of women and what happened after?
A
- Significant role in workplace during war
- Many advances lost after war
- 60s & 70s: women made economic advances and equality in workplace by law
3
Q
What improvements happened after WW1 for women?
A
- Pol + econ change = shaping women’s lives
- Accustomed to new pol rights + employment opportunities + leisure time
4
Q
What were the limitations for improvement to women’s lives after WW1?
A
- Work opportunities still highly gendered
- Low wages, low-skilled jobs, long hours
5
Q
What significant change for women occurred in March 1918 and why?
A
- Rep of People Act
- Enfranchised women if:
1. >30
2. member / married to member of local gov registrar
3. graduate voting in uni election
4. property owner - only educated / ‘respectable’ women enfranchised
- still made 43% of electorate (8.4Mn voters) in Dec 1918 election
- if women enfranchised to same level as men (21) , would have made majority of electorate due to high losses of men in war
- WC women received vote in 1928
6
Q
What employment opportunities did WW1 provide?
A
- Entire civilian population mobilised - gave women more opportunities
- Auxiliaries, drivers, telephonists, signallers, nurses
7
Q
What was the change in the female industrial workforce?
A
- 1914: 200,000 employed in metals + chemicals industries
- 1918: >1Mn
- Cordite factory (Gretna): 11,000 women worked on explosives
- Public life roles (eg: railways + trams) previously preserved for men
8
Q
What happened to the status of women after WW1?
A
- Gains overturned due to harsh economic backdrop
- Wartime employment only needed for conflict
- Return of soldiers = women forced out of workplace
9
Q
What was the gov agreement with TU in 1914?
A
- ‘Dilution’ : skilled workers fighting in France replaced by semi-skilled with conditions:
1. Employment = war length
2. new workers did not profit and no higher wages than men
10
Q
What was the state of employment opportunities for women until about the 1930s?
A
- Service work 9maid, cook, cleaner, etc…)
- 1918: 1.25Mn women ‘in service’
- BUT unpopular - if experience women often wanted other jobs
- YET limited due to: prejudice, lack of edu opportunities, prevailing ideas on ‘women’s work’
11
Q
What was the result of the war ending on women’s employment
A
- Returned to pre-war levels (about 5.7Mn)
- Return to trad gender ideas
- If women worked: service / clerical work
12
Q
How obvious were gender roles in employment in the 1920s?
A
- Hired for factory work/ service if WC
- Clerical work for educates (AKA: artisan WC / Lower MC)
- Clerical work = biggest growth for female employment
- 1921: > 1Mn employed as typists / clerks (+ 300,000 ten years later)
13
Q
What were the few other opportunities for women in the 1920s outside of clerical and service work?
A
- WC: sweated labour in light manufacturing
- poorly paid
- unemployment benefit for women set at lower rate therefore no incentive to offer better pay
13
Q
What was the majority of work done by working women?
A
- Home: baking, brewing, sewing
- household tasks, childcare
14
Q
Background to the suffrage campaign
A
- Resulted in 1918 RPA
- Carried out by edu MC women - many interested in expansion to property owning women
- Only radical fringes of movement thought uneducated WC women might get vote
14
Q
How were opportunities for MC women still limited?
A
- 1931: 3,000 female medical practitioners + 180,000 nurses + 21/ 6,000 architects + 4 structural & civil engineers
- Civil service: open to women (especially clerical level) but none posted overseas
14
Q
What was the situation of employment like for women during the interwar years?
A
- Gradual improvement: uni began accepting women
- Sex Disqualification (removal) act 1919: barred preventing career in law/ civil service on gender
- Some evidence of slow changing male attitudes
15
Q
How did marriage impact women’s employment
A
- Teaching: common but marriage bar (left if married)
- 1931: 84% of female workforce single, divorced, widowed
- Married women (especially MC) expected to stay home + husband’s support
16
Q
How did women face political prejudice in the interwar years on the national level?
A
- Never <5% female MPs with max 15 in 1931
- faced petty restrictions (eg: not allowed use commons dining room)
- LAP (proponent of women’s enfranchisement/ social reform) attracted most women (150,000 from 1918-24)
- YET many labour activists felt women should stay at home (max 9 labour MPs)
- Other parties: subservient roles (leaflet delivery, organising fundraising events)
17
Q
How did women face political prejudice in the interwar years on the local level?
A
- More influence but still <15% of elected local councillors female by 1930
- Focussed on social issues (edu, welfare, etc…)
- Often ground for national office
17
Q
What did the Second World War result in for women?
A
- Total war = increase in opportunities
- Engaged in military + civilian roles
18
Q
What are some examples to demonstrate the positive impact of WW2 on status of women?
A
- 1944: 80,000 women worked on farms for women’s land army
- Mostly female workforce in: munitions factories, aircraft construction, parachute packing, uniform manufacture
- WOmen’s Voluntary service: supported civil defence + offered shelter to bombing victims
- Non-combat roles: drovers, cooks, clerks, radar plotters, mechanics in all 3 auxiliary services
- Female cryptanalysts + translators broke enemy codes + handful of British female spies
19
Q
What were the practical benefits of the war on women despite hardships?
A
- better paid
- Got new skills + ability confidence
- Levels of importance + seniority reached not available in civilian life
- overseas postings + relocations = new opportunities
- Sense of participation + contribution fighting alongside men
20
Q
What were the gov hopes after war?
A
- Social upheavals NOT = social change
- Women return to role as wives + mothers
- few inducements offered of pay/ working hours to encourage women working
21
What happened to the women that exclusively remained in employment?
- Exclusively female fields
- 1951: 86% of working women in industries: teaching, nursing, waitressing, factory / clerical work
22
What happened to the marriage bar?
- Pre 1944: majority of industries had bars to give up once married
- 1946 on: major employers removed requirement
- Teaching: 1944
- Civil service: 1946
- Bank of England: 1949
- gradually removed from most businesses in 50s + 60s
23
What was the attitude of women towards work post-WW2?
- Mass observation (40s/ 50s): many ambivalent about working life
- Working women who anticipated jobs ending inherited values of previous gen
- 1948 study of 100 women in 3 locations found:
1. Widespread desire end work after marriage
- Need for extra income = main motivation
- Most didn't define selves by work / view as important to identity
24
What was the perception of women who wanted to build careers?
- Minority: unusual, failed to fulfil primary role of 'home maker' & mother
25
What was the result of ending the marriage bar for women?
- More women worked longer (50% married women retained jobs by 1972)
- Late 50s: norm for unequal pay receiving on avg 40% less than men
- 1958: civil service introduced equal pay + edu system + NHS but no gov legislation yet
26
Lead up to Equal pay act
- 1959: Labour manifesto commitment to equal pay
- 1965: TUC agreed to give support to women's workers
27
Why was the Equal pay act passed?
- Pre-requisite to joining EEC (European economic community)
- Law made pay discrimination illegal for gender (1975 into effect)
28
What did Labour's sex discrimination act in 1975 set in place?
- Equal Opportunities Commission - ensure fair employment practices + legal protection against edu + job discrimination for women
- Established tribunals - dealt with workplace sexual harassment, recognised everyday sexual discrimination women encountered (doctors, banks, shopping, etc...)
29
what were the limitations to the legislation against discrimination (70s) ?
- Still faced prejudice in pol field + workforce
- Many still believed primary role = mothers + wives
- paid employment secondary, only for 'pin money'
- Failure of pol = to meaningfully change women's lives led to second-wave feminism
30
Dagenham sewn machinists' strike
- 1968: management at ford motor company's car factory paid female sewing mechanists 15% less in wages than men doing = jobs
- 3 week strike
- Secretary of State for employment & productivity (Barbara Castle) intervened
- negotiated pay deal to increase wages by 7%
- court of inquiry ruled against women with equal pay only achieved in 1984 with further strikes
- raised issue of unequal pay
31
What was the political advancement for women by 1979?
- Almost insignificant progress
- Female MP number constantly 20-30 with dips
- Due to prejudice + widespread belief that would be too busy with domestic duties (MARGARET THATCHER)
32
What was the impact of campaigners on the role and status of woemn
- Changes to attitudes to family life
- personal freedoms
- Differnt to the legislation that impacted women's pol + econ status
33
To what extent did the societal role of women change from 1918-39 and why?
- Women remained homemakers while men head of household
- Few gains in control of family life (especially divorce laws, access to birth control, freer self expression)
- MC women did experience some greater freedom but little beneficial change for majority WC who greatly suffered in GD
34
When was the issue of divorce revisited from its initial law in 1857 and how so?
- 1934: satirical novel (holy Deadlock) by AP Herbert pointed out absurdities in divorce laws
1. Unhappily married couple could not obtain based on mutual consent - had to have instances of adultery / violence
2. meant couples often had to perjure in court to obtain divorce. If 1 spouse unfaithful = divorce granted but could refuse if both
35
How did couples try to prove adultery
- Farcial manner: private detectives hired to find evidence
- Sometimes paid females to meet errant husbands in hotel bedrooms: photographed in compromising positions
36
What was the another ethical battleground for women of the interwar period and what were its beginnings?
- Birth control
- 1921: Dr Marie Stopes found 1st birth control clinic in London
- health workers who directed to women to the hospital sacked but demand for birth control advice from clinics spread across country
36
What did Herbert do to attempt to change the divorce laws and what happened?
- Became independent MP for campaign
- 1937 Matrimonial Causes ACT: divorce allowed if either partner unfaithful + desertion >3 years
- Opposed by Church of England + Catholic Church but widespread Catholic support
- Pre-reform: <4,800 divorce petitions/ year but by 1951 = 38,000
37
When did the issue of remarriage become of national significance?
- 1936: Abdication crisis - King Edward VIII sought to marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson
- Popular attitude to divorced women revealed
- Popular press + discussion: scheming, manipulative gold digger
38
To what extent did public attitudes to birth control change by the 30s from different groups perspectives?
- 1930: many local authorities argued funding to these clinics essential
- 1930: gov decided acceptable for clinics to advise mothers who alr had 1 child + 2nd pregnancy would damage health
- 1930: Church of England allowed married members of congregations to use birth control methods BUT catholic church still staunchly against
- 1930: General Medical Council allowed doctors give contraception advice (ONLY married couples)
38
What was public opinion towards the issue of birth control in the 1920s?
- Salford + Cardiff senior clergymen condemned clinics (filthy, unnatural)
- Doctors also critical
- 1927: LAP voted for resolution at conference against allowing local authority funding for birth control clinics
39
To what extent was there practical change for women for birth control in the 30s?
- WC women not covered by National Health Insurance schemes didn't benefit but relied on help from local birth control clinics + friend / neighbour advice
- Contraceptive caps, condoms, pessaries & other methods bought from barbers, chemists and hygiene stores
40
How did legal and political rights changes coincide with self expression?
- Many women lived single lives in 20s due to number of men killed in WW1
- Found new freedom: clerical jobs - allowed women to enjoy consumerism of interwar years
41
How did the 'flapper girl' look develop
- Young women rejecting Edwardian fashion of covering entire body
- Instead wore shorter skirts, shorter haircuts, exotic fashions
- Wasn't phenomenon purely of 20s but grew as a social trend post 1918
42
What were the characteristics of flapper girls?
- Enjoyed: dancing, jazz, social freedoms unheard of pre WW1
- Popular press: glamorous + promiscuous lifestyles but no evidence that attitudes to sex different than majority of women in 20s
- Associated habits: Smoking and drinking ('un-ladylike') - indicator of independence and not being dictated by men
- Cinema growth (leisure activity): actresses such as Clara bore and Coleen Moore presented as attractive role models
- BUT: needed good income + leisure time therefore rarely experienced by WC women who suffered during GD
42
What were the impacts of WW2 on women's lives societally?
- Majority: war work/ active service
- Those who did not: rationing + split up families by evacuation and enlistment of husbands to army
- Fragmentation caused by wartime experience = immediate post-war many willingly returned to primary role of 'home maker' + mother
- Late 50s: women felt isolated and increasingly discontent with role + status
- Challenging of groups + movements in 60s + 70s
43
What was family life like for women in GD?
- Disproportionately impacted women
- Primary carers for children therefore in poorer areas often ate less so husbands + children had meals
- Household roles divided with gender so women expected go without food when not enough money for whole family as man was primary wage earner
- 1933: Hungry England enquiry reported sometimes women starved to feed families
- Women with poor families often had many children (parts of E London: 9 children not rare)
- Dependent on unemployment relief (after 1934 means tested) condemning many to live under poverty line - couldn't provide minimum food for families
44
To what extent did housewives feel isolated?
- Late 50s study: 40% of women interviewed content with lives at home but remaining 60% admitted to boredom, frustration, loneliness
- Possible explanations:
1. Rapid growth of consumer society
2. Expansion of leisure time
3. improvements of edu opportunities
- presented women with more choices than ever
45
How did adverts and consumerism help to share perception + expectations of women?
- 'Housewife' - newspaper + TV adders: controller of domestic sphere, used modern tech to run kitchen
- Not just cook + clean but decision maker in day-to-day purchasing decisions (but men still made big purchases like cars / TVs)
- Result: advertisers + product makers keen to market goods to women
- Labour saving devices (eg: washing machines + vacuum cleaners) suggested that would leave women more time to focus on family and pleasing husband
46
To what extent was there change to help isolated women at home?
- 1960: Betty Herman wrote article revealing frustrations of women in homes & presented domestic life for MC women as dull and suffocating
- Housebound Housewives register created as result
- Renamed to national housewives register
- 1st organisation catered to isolated women at home
47
What were the 2 waves of feminism between the end of 19C and 1979?
1. Suffrage movement + campaign for pol equality
2. Mid 60s on: 'women's lib' movement concerned with:
- brith control + reproductive rights
- DV
- workplace sexism
- pornography + objectification of women
- patriarchal society's stifling effect on women's confidence and MH
47
What action did the women's lib movement do?
- Raised consciousness of these inequalities and period saw far-reaching changes in family life + personal freedoms
48
Introduction of the contraceptive pill
- 1961: introduced but doctors feared prescription to married women = promiscuity in unmarried women (doctors seen as guardians of public morality)
- Within decade: 1Mn women using pill (popularity needs of women to limit children number)
49
What sexual liberties did the pill offer women?
- Sexual freedoms previously unknown (able to enjoy sex without fear of unwanted pregnancy)
- Previous: common for men to consider selves in charge of contraception ('natural methods' / condoms)
- Gave women ability to control own fertility and more effective than other contraceptive devices
50
What societal impacts did the pill have on women?
- By end of 70s: women had fewer children + 1st child later
- 1971: 47% had 1st child by 25 but fell to 25% by century end
- Instead able focus on careers + edu therefore more skilled women entering workforce
51
Why was the act of decriminalising abortion surprisingly popular?
- 1967: Act of parliament decriminalised it proposed by Liberal MP David Steel
- Many supported as unknown numbers of back-street and illegal abortions harm/ killed unknown numbers of women
- others worried about ever increasing number s(149,746) by 1979
52
To what extent did marriage change in the late 60s?
- Social researchers studying family life saw role change of men and women in home
- Less patriarchal, married couples shared housework more =
- 'partnership' marriage different from trad gender role ideas in home
53
What was the impact of the women's lib movement on the perception of feminism ?
- Post WW2, feminism seen as old fashion concept of suffragette movement
- both parties: treated as irrelevant only for extremists
- 1968: Barbara Castle (most prominent female politician0 reused to discuss legacy of female suffrage at LAP conference
54
What did the new wave of feminist activists do?
- Associate econ equality struggle with social inequality
- Feb 1970: organised first national women's conference at ruskin college
- mainly attended by young, MC, uni educated gathering to discuss feminist politics + history
55
What happened in terms of growth of feminism during this period
- 12 months: women's groups in London went for 4 to >50
- Women's liberation workshop emerged from activism growth: held consciousness raising workshops where women openly expressed experiences
- Enabled group members identify everyday sexism as oppressive and develop group political consciousness
56
What protest happened in 1970?
- Miss World Beauty Contest: stormed on stage at royal Albert hall throwing flower bombs at all-male judging panel
- BBC outside broadcast unit sent to cover pageant attacked by Angry brigade (anarchist terrorist group) also protesting against women's oppression
- 2 incidents do not appear to have co-ordinated
57
Impact of Female Eunech
- Written by Germaine Greer
- lasting influence on feminist movement
- Argued men's control of women ed women to become trapped in suffocating gender roles
- Cut off from sexuality by institution of marriage
58
Impact of Spare Rib magazine
- Published by feminist writers Rosie boycott + sheila rowbotham
- Captured ideas of movement form 1972 onwards
- Linked feminist mvoement to socialist politics and argued link of capitalism and women's subjugation
- Generation of novelists (Angela Carter, Doris Lessing, etc...) articulated women's experiences in 70s
59
What changes in provisions were there for victims of domestic violence?
- Women's activists set up refuges and centres
- Most famous: Chiswick one established by Erin pizza
- Did not identify as feminist + argued women could also be violent but network for DV refuges free from Chiswick women's aid developed in context of movement
60
Why was Erin pizzey able to set the refuge up?
- Not that DV unknown but because of changed in women's politics
- Allowed addressed publicly for first time
61
What was the impact of naitonal women's aid federation?
- Established 1974
- United >40 independent women's refuges into 1 national body
- Campaigned for DV legislation
- 1976: DV and matrimonial proceedings act passed providing courts with power to impose injunctions on individuals who assaulted spouses with jail terms if breached
62
Impact of rape crisis centres
- 1973: first rape crisis centre opened
- partly: consciousness-raising workshops of women's lib movements
- Many participants in workshops revealed experiences of sexual violence and failures of legal system
- Few rape cases came to court often conducted in manner advantaged to accused
- Female victims cross-examined about own sexual history and feel as if on trial
- Decade after: >60 opened within UK
