Social conditions and living standard of IWYs

Question 1

summarise the extension of the vote for women (and men) between 1918 and 1928

Answer 1

• representation of the peoples act 1918
• extended the vote to women over 30, who were middle class ratepayers or married to one
• Baldwin equal franchise act 1928 extended voting rights to all women and female voters, outnumbered males vote by 2 m

Question 2

brieiflty summerise the diapointing short term results of the sex disqulaifiaction act 1919

Answer 2

• allowed women to stand for parliament, enter most professions and serve in juries
• in 1929 only 2.3% of the commons was female
• only 1 female members of cabinet
• social emancipation did not follow automatically

Question 3

identify 3 percentage meausrements regarding the extent and character of female workers

Answer 3

• during the 1WW 1.7 m women worked in industry to replace the male workers fighting in the war
• 250 thousand worked on farms
• 200 thousand worked in public transport, medical auxiliary units of the army and as army nurses

Question 4

make a juegement on the increse in female work in the inter war years ()and thus finaicuial independence relative to the prevoius peroids

Answer 4

• whilst this public service contributed to the ROPA 1919, it did not produce a permanent social advance for women
• male trade unions hostile towards female emancipation in industry since they saw it as justification by employer for the dilution of skill and the reduction of wage rates

Question 5

give 2 factors that illustrate change in birth rates

Answer 5

• birth rate declined substantially and with it the average family size
• in the victorian period married women had 5-6 live births but by the 1920s they only had 2.2
• by 1939 the birthrate was less than half what it was 50 years before
• 27.5% of couples had 5 or more children in 1891 but in 1940 this had declined to 11.2%

Question 6

what were the concequecnes for women of a faling birth rate

Answer 6

• women now had decades after the birth of her 2 children for work or leisure

Question 7

identify 3 points of evidence that illustrate female participation in the economy

Answer 7

• by 1931 there were 6.25m women at work
  -in 1935 there were only 116 women solicitors and nearly 3 thousand doctors

Question 8

what informal practice dominated female employment and damaged the impact of the sex disqualification act 1919

Answer 8

• informal marriage bar
• discriminated against married women in both recruitment and retentions after marriage

Question 9

explain wheather or not national insurance (sickness) convered women and children

Answer 9

• NI left 15m uncovered mostly women and children under 5

Question 10

what was published by Marie stopes and were her idea as popular and radical as sometimes thouhght

Answer 10

• Married love, a guide to married couples on sex and family planning (1918)
• readership was predominantly middle class and she was opposed to sex outside of marriage

Question 11

give 3 reasons why the image of an independent and assertive flapper was a myth in the 1920s

Answer 11

• institution if marriage remained very strong
• women married younger than their late victorian equivalent and only 6 % of marriages ended in divorce
• cohabiting was considered living in sin
• children born out of marriage faced legal and social discriminations
• single motherhood was seen as social failure

Question 12

what was the attitudes of governemnt and church towards contraception

Answer 12

• all forms of contraceptives were condemned by the church and government policy until late 1930s
• allowed health centres to advise married women at risk of health complications from future births

Question 13

how many women are estimated to have died every yeat becasue of complications casued by illegal abortions

Answer 13

100 thousand to 150 thousand

Question 14

how did legal reforms in the 1935 help middle class women

Answer 14

• grounds for divorce relaxed at glacial speed
• guardianship of children was vested in the mother and father jointly rather than the father
• law reform act 1935 completed the victorian legislation by empowering a married woman to dispose of all her property as if she was single

Question 15

identify sigificant statisicits about wages, prices and real eages between 1924 and 1935

Answer 15

• decline in money wages fae less than decline in prices
• real wages grew by 17% between 1924 and 1935

Question 16

identify the life expectanvy of men and women for 1910 and 1939

Answer 16

• life expancatnty for women incresed form 55 (1910) to 66 (1938)
• 51 to 61 for man

Question 17

using relative statisitics what do the meausrents for imfant mortality tell us about GB

Answer 17

• infant mortality declined
• regional variations remained
• 47 deaths per thousand in the SE
• 68 in the north
• 73 in Harrow
• 138 in wigan
• 134 in the rhondda of south of wales

Question 18

what happened to algricultural prices after 1WW and what adectice can be used to describe thier movement after 1918

Answer 18

• prices of british agricultural products tripled during 1WW
• during IWY fell back down to pre 1914 levels
• farming heavily reliant on government subsidies to stay afloat

Question 19

identify 4 reasons why the rural worker was worse off than an urban ccontemporary

Answer 19

• The income of farmers was 1/2 of their contemporaries in urban britain
• national insurance for unemployment was only extended to farmworkers in 1936 and at a lower rate of benefit
• holiday pay act 1936 did not cover then
• experienced the worst housing in size, age, repair and sanitary conditions

Question 20

identify 4 reasons for migration of rural workers to urban arrea and identfity the % of who left and what constricted thier departure

Question 21

what % of poverty was discovered in GB

Answer 21

• 31% of the working population lied in poverty
• rates of 10% for london bristol and liverpool

Question 22

identify 2 resons for poverty explained by rowentree

Answer 22

• poverty arose independently of unemployment
• over 1/2 of the working class cohort born in 1936 would be in poverty in the first part of their life and in old age due to the family poverty cycle
• pension increase to 10 shillings a week was still below the poverty line

Question 23

identify the uneployment figure for 1921 and 1933 and explain why the latter may be an understatement

Answer 23

• 1921 - 2m unemployed
• 1929 - 1.1m
  1933 3m
• understatement as women would often not register as unemployed as many declined to do so because of the stigma of the means test

Question 24

how did pigou describe umemplyment in the IWYs

Answer 24

intractable million

Question 25

given the geographical distribution of class and industry , what conclusions can be drawn about living standards in the GB

Answer 25

-

Question 26

using statistics what happened to inequities in the IWYs and which class benefited the most in terms of improved living standards

Answer 26

- 1/2 of the middle class lived in London and the SE - 1/2 of British coal, 90% of textile output and 75% of steel production was located in the seven counties of the north - shipbuilding was located in the NW and NW - in Wigan 1 in 3 men were unemployed - 1/2 of the population in Glasgow was unemployed in 1930s - long term unemployment accounted for 27% of total unemployed in 1936 - middle class achieved the greatest affluence and improvement in living standards form greater income low prices and access to cheap money

Question 27

using statistics explain how houeisng tenure changed during the IWYs

Answer 27

- at the start of IWY only 10% of homes were owner occupied - a council house needed weekly income of £4 but in 1934 78% of all families received less than £4 a week

Question 28

how many council houses and houses for private housing were built in the IWY

Answer 28

- 1m council houses were built in the IWYs due the Addison, Wheatley and greenwood acts - by 1939 31% of homes were now owner occupied

Question 29

what % of expendidture was spent of alchol and tobacoo

Answer 29

- by 1948 80% of men and 60% of women smoked - 20% of expenditure on entertainment and recreations in the IWYs was spent on alcohol and tobacco

Question 30

how many people indulged in gambling of some form and what % of spending went on it

Answer 30

- by 1938 10, people gambled every week and 18m attended greyhound races at newly built stadium - by the end of IWYs 4.5% of estimated expenditure on entertainment and recreation was spent on gambling,

Question 31

what happeneed to working hours and why is the change to them possibly important

Answer 31

- reduced by an average of 6 hours/week - growth of paid holidays - attendance at sporting events grew

Question 32

using statisitics explain the change in numbers of people taking hoildays

Answer 32

- over 1m people had a holiday in 1925, 4m by 1937 - holidays with pay act 1938 - 11m benefited - by the late 1930s Blackpool had 7m overnight visitors annually - butlins opens its first holiday resort in 11937 promising a holiday for the cost of a workers weekly wage - only 1m of middle class took holidays abroad

Question 33

what is the most important act of parliament and why

Question 34

using statistics identify the growth of cinemas, identify the growth in book sales women magazines and identify the adult literacy rate

Answer 34

- in 1914 there were 3 thousand cinemas - by 1939 there were 5 thousand 93m tickets sold every week - 1911 public libraries issued 54m books - 1924 208 - 1939 247 by 1939 82% of the population read a newspaper - 16% illiteracy rate - women magazines : vogue (1916), homes and gardens (1919) women's own (1932)

Question 35

using statisitics indentiy theg growth in roadio use and how many people did not have access to one

Answer 35

- BBC began in 1922 - radio licences grew from 36 thousand in 1922 to 23m in 1939 - 3.5m poor households could not afford a radio

Question 36

wha were the 4 englands of priestly

Question 37

what is meant by the morbid ages

Answer 37

- one survey at the end of the 1930s concluded that 10% of the population was badly fed and 50% were ill fed - the average height of children from a public school was 6 inches taller than their peers in council schools and this difference had not changed since 1883

Question 38

Regional Disparities unemployment

Answer 38

Certain areas, like South Wales and Liverpool, faced even higher unemployment rates than the national average

Question 39

Impact of the Great Depression

Answer 39

The Great Depression, while comparatively mild in Britain compared to other countries, intensified unemployment, leading to a doubling of the unemployment rate from the end of 1929 to the end of 1930

Question 40

Unemployment Insurance act 1920

Answer 40

The government extended unemployment insurance schemes in 1920 to alleviate the effects of unemployment. - established the dole system -covered over 11 million workers, practically the entire civilian working population except for domestic service, farm workers, railway workers, and civil servants

Question 41

benefits and funding of unemployment insurance act 1920

Answer 41

- The act provided 15 weeks of unemployment benefits to those covered, with weekly payments of 15 shillings for unemployed men and 12 shillings for unemployed women - The scheme was funded in part by weekly contributions from both employers and employees.