Women ('50s/'60s) + Society ('60s) Flashcards
Women after the war
By ‘47, nearly 2 million women had left work and women had postponed having children during the war so there was natural migration of women back to the home to start families
But 66% of women wanted to continue working after the war
What % of women returned to work after having children and what was the argument against this?
10% in 1931
21% in 1951
47% in 1971
Women spent 1/3 of their adult life child-bearing and then returned to work
Psychologists said that infants deprived of full-time maternal care would be psychologically damaged but by ’60s these ideas were criticised
Women and equal pay
London County Council agreed to introduce equal pay for women in ‘common classes’ of teaching, nursing and clerical workers
This was gradually extended between 1954+1962
Dagenham strikes
138 female car mechanics demanded recognition as skilled workers and in turn, a pay increase
Gained significant media coverage, forced Ford to offer a rate for women that was in 8% of the male rate
TUs in the ’50s
Female TU membership had fallen in the post-war years and by the ’50s unions were resorting to fashion shows to try and recruit female members
What was the National Insurance Act?
1945, based on ‘equal but different’ principal
Beveridge wrote that married women couldn’t expect to regard paid work in the same way as a man, thus enforcing some kind of dependency within women
What were Family Allowances?
Life-long work of Eleanor Rathbone which was translated into law in ‘46
Initially to be paid to the husband until feminist voices shouted this down in parliament and then it was paid to the mother
Women and education
Tripartite system designed with boys in mind and the only option for girls at technical school was typing + shorthand Said that grammar schools were spending over 12s on boys but only 8s on girls Evans describes girls' Grammar schools as enforcing 'well-behaved middle class women who knows how to defeat to and respect the authority of men'
Women and fashion
’40s women looked to cinema for escapism as rationing carried on long after the war
by ’50s women could copy styles of Hollywood women like Marilyn Monroe
Shift to sexier images of women in ’50s and all these women were white and glamorous, enforcing racism
Marriage in the 50s
Some thought that men were taking a much more active role in the relationship and looking after kids more
More say that men saw marriage as a labour and sexual contract and that society undermined the position of the housewife and this wasn’t compensated with economic activity outside the house
Marriage Guidance Council
Founded just before the war, encourage couples to seek advice if marriage wasn’t working, inc achieving a more rewarding sexual life
Kinsey reports
‘48 and ‘53 and had matter-of-fact descriptions of sexual behaviour which demystified sex and prompted slow liberalisation of attitudes towards the subject
The teenager
Adolescent wages were rising two as fast as adults and their disposable income meant they became a prime market in clothes, cosmetics etc
After previous generation growing up through he war, this generation was much happier, self-aware and self-centred
Wilson claims that ‘for girls, their sexuality was a crime’
Did women feel like a sexual revolution was taking place?
Many said it was happening just over there i.e to other places but not here suggesting that notation of ‘swinging sixties’ was just a myth
When was the pill introduced?
‘61 and by ‘64 half a million women were on the pill, contraception was gradually becoming available to unmarried women
Women quickly realised that if they were planning to marry then they could get the pill, it gave them more control over their bodies
What were the consequences of the pill?
It posed health risks for some groups and made sex a recreational activity which enabled casual intercourse without fear of consequence
However, also used to pressure them into sexual encounters
When did abortion become legal?
1967 as long as the consent of 2 doctors was given and if there was either a serious mental or physical risk to the mother’s health or that there was a high chance the baby would be born with severe abnormalities
Abortion rates rose dramatically, 5 million by end of ’60s
What did the Divorce Reform Act mean?
1969 removed ‘matrimonial offence’ or moral blame that had to be allocated and legalised idea of ‘irreconcilable breakdown of marriage’
Wolfenden Report
1957, liberalised the regulation of male homosexuality but lesbianism remained invisible
What was the Life Peerages Act
‘57 and allowed creation of both male and female life peers
Woman and CND
Were against New Right and questioned the Cold War
emphasised banning the nuclear bomb after reading of effects of radiation
Women and race
Afro-Caribbean population increased and so did racism
Several Afro-Caribbean women started to organise their communities e.g Claudia Jones who had been deported to UK from US for setting up communities in Harlem
1960s a ‘permissive society’?
Term from Philip Larkin who saw it as a time of sexual liberation, there was a change in private and public morals as well as a new kind of openness
Some saw this as a negative effect of Labour govt. passing liberalising legislation
What % of births were illegitimate?
- 8% in 1960
8. 2% in 1970
