1960s Society

Youth Culture

1960s saw an explosion driven by:

• Music - Beatles, Rolling Stones

• Fashion - Miniskirts, Mods v Rockers, Hippies

• Recreational Drug Use - Cannabis and LSD

Rise in uni students led to more radical politics and anti-establishment views

Immigration and Race Relations

Continued immigration from the Caribbean, South Asia, and Africa. Tensions grew in Urban Areas over jobs and housing.

Race Relations Act, 1965

Act that forbode:

• Discrimination in public settings

• Discrimination in housing and employment excluded

• Set up the Race Relations Board to arbitrate issues

  • 1966 - 327 disputes were resolved

Commonwealth Immigration Act 1968

Further restricted immigration from the new commonwealth, caused controversy and was seen as racially motivated.

Race Relations Act 1968

Banned discrimination in housing, employment, insurance and other services.

The Race Relations Board was given stronger powers but loopholes persisted. Only 10% of 1,241 cases upheld from 1968 to Jan 1972.

Employers used ‘racial balance’ as a loophole and the police were excluded.

Rivers of Blood Speech, April 1968

Speech made by Enoch Powell to the Conservative Political Centre at the Midland Hotel, Birmingham.

Said that white people would become “Strangers in their own country”

Sparked national debate over whether he was right or had gone too far on the issue of Immigration.

Powell was dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet by Heath but gained significant public support.

Demonstrated rising anxiety over immigration.

The position of Women

Developments:

• More women entered higher education and employment, especially part-time work

• Gender inequality remained widespread

• Women only earned 60-70% of male wages

• Limited access to High status jobs

NHS Family Planning Act, 1967

Allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives and set the groundwork for the 1970 Equal Pay Act (came into effect in 1975)

1970 Matrimonal Property Act

Established that the work of a wife, in paid service or at home, should be take into account when settling divorce settlements.

Sexual Offences (Homosexual) Act 1967

Both chambers decriminalised private, consensual acts of same-sex intimacy between adult men aged 21 or older.

Developed from the Wolfden Report of 1954 and the bill introduced by backbench MP Leo Abse in 1967.

Abortion Act 1967

Pushed for by the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) in July 1966 and proposed to the HoC by MP David Steele to allow abortion as a result of rape.

Was changed to full accessibility and passed in 1967.

Allowed up to 24 weeks for an abortion but required 2 doctors to approve it, agreeing that:

1. Pregnancy posed a risk to the physical or mental health of the women or child

2. Substantial risk the baby would be born with serious disabilities

3. Continuing the pregnancy would cause greater harm to the women than having an abortion

Education

Comprehensive schools expanded: Labour wanted to remove the Tripartite System and the 11+ exams.

Abolished the fees for comprehensives: Abolished secondary education fees making it free for <16s (No strict fees since 1944)

Introduced the Open University in 1969, but first students in 1971.

Opened Polytechnical Schools focused on STEM subjects.

Education Legislation

1962 Education Act: Abolished UK tuition fees at all unis.

1965 Education Act: Forced all schools to adopt the Comprehensive system, pushed for by MP Anthony Crossland (Socialist)

1967 Plowden Report: Needed to focus on Child-Centred Education, Emphasised importance of creativity and self-expression in early education, Improved teaching, Suggested reduced class sizes and ‘Middle Schools’ (yrs 5-8).

Media

Rise of television as the dominant medium; 1961 = 75% TV ownership, 1971 = 91% TV ownership.

Growth in coverage of controversial topic like sex, class, and politics

Increased concerns about moral decline specifically from the old generation.

BBC 2 born in April 1964, as the more ‘high-brow’ channel.