Social and Cultural Change
Cards (35)
- Heavily expanded during this time, TV was nationwide which meant that there was an absence of distant communities. It slowly became a source of entertainment. By 1961, 75% had a TV at home and in 1971, it was 91% of people.
- At the beginning of the 1960s, BBC only had 3 channels.
- Holidays: 1961 holidays abroad 4 million and 7 million 10 years later
- Still mostly available to the middle class and above but it did make by 8.4% of holidays in 1971 compared to 4% on 1966.
- Post Office Tower in 1965, tallest building in Britain.
- A department of Queen's household which had the power to prevent plays being performed or order changes to be made to them
- They had to get a license from the Lord Chamberlain's Office to be allowed to perform, the office could demand ot remove plays if they deemed it as inappropriate and theatre owners could be prosecuted if the plays didn't meet those demands
- Free of censorship, which allowed nudity on stage.
- The duty of women was to be a good wife and mother, keeping a clean house, feeding everyone and remained strong during the 60s like in the 50s.
- Emerged from the US when Betty Freidan published the Feminist Mystique in 1963 who argued that women were unfulfilled with their restrictive life. This had come to Britain which became more popular due to the growth of education in the middle class.
- Only 5% reached high managerial positions
- If mothers wanted to go to work they would need to hire nannies but only wealthy people could do this.
- Allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives and free contraceptive advice
- Number of marriages ending in divorce also rose
- Conference at Ruskin College in February 1970 put forward 4 demands for women: equal pay, free contraceptive and abortion on request, equal educational and job opportunities and free 24-hour childcare.
- Established that the work of a wife, regardless of whether or not it was in employment or at home, should be taken into account in divorce settlements.
- Catholic MP St John-Stevas wrote a critical essay titled 'The Pope, the Pill and the People' in 1968.
- Set up by Mary Whitehouse which had 100,000 members who tried to lobby programme's that were too permissive for them. This wasn't really successful in changing any programme.
- Hippy lifestyle normalised drugs and even the Beatles turned to LSD
- Suggested legalisation of soft drugs but Callaghan rejected this and viewed it as a step too far
- It was more of a top-down approach and many weren't these rebels that these legislations made them out to be. There was still religious and moral restraints. Surveys by Michael Schofield on sexual behaviour of young people showed that most were either virgins on marriage or married their first and only sexual partner.
- They happened outside of the American embassy. March: more violent protest known as Battle of Grosvenor which ended up in 200 people arrested.
- 1965; first race relations Act: forbade discrimination in public places but discrimination in housing and employment was excluded. Race Relations Board was meant to deal with deal with complaints
- Passed as a result of the influx of Kenyan Asians which limited the right to return to Britain for no-white commonwealth citizens
- Gallup poll found that 75% of the population supported powell.
- Banned racial discrimination in housing, employment, insurance and others. The Race Relations Board was given stronger powers... but whether they used them was a different issue. There was still loopholes in the law such employers being about to discriminate against non-whites in the interest of 'racial-balance'
- Upheld only 10% of the 1241 complaints it received about discrimination in regards to employment until January 1972 and overall it got little complaints because of the little trust that people had in it
- Youth took from some ethnic communities such as Hippies who wore Indian and African cotton
- Australian academic who's book 'The Female Eunuch' (1970) demanded that law is changed in those areas were females suffered and were discriminated against.
- After the Obscene Publicans Act in 1959 was passed which protected obscene works published 'in the interest of science, learning, literature or art'. They were being accused of publishing obscene work so when the case ruling was not-guilty it set a precedent for the rest of literature works during this period.
- By the mid-1960s, the youth was spending 60% of their disposable income on clothing.
- It requires a bigger social change meaning that one group needs to pressure the rest of society for there to be not only a legal change but a social one.
- Published 1963 argued women were unfulfilled with restricted lives. Spread to Britain where the growth of education for women contributed to growing frustration. Not all women agreed. Began feminism.