AIC

Britain 1912

·       Bruh was a highly prosperous and technologically advanced nation after the industrial revolution

·       factory workers lived in polluted and overcrowded slums

·       working conditions began to improve when the trade unions were legalised in 19th century

·       in 1912, the laws still favoured factory owners and class divisions were still very much apparent (factory owners still reaped rewards of workers- Capitalist)

·       Gender divisions remained just as rigid- Suffragettes movement

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Women in 1912:

·       Women’s wages were only 1/3 to ½ what the men’s wages were!

·       Women who didn’t work were in domestic roles

·       Difficult for women to divorce- would lose children

·       Acceptable for men to have mistresses and other relationships- Gerald

·       No state support for women with no husband- Mrs Birling disregarding Eva at the Brumley Women’s Charity

·       Priestley became an advocate for women’s rights

A Writer’s Calling:

·       JB Priestley was born in Bradford (working class)

·       1910, JB Priestley worked in a textiles factory- saw first hand

·       In army in WW1 and, when returned home injured, Bruh was in the process of immense change

·       Large sections of working class went to war and those who didn’t had higher positions in the work force

·       Class barriers were further broken down by weakened state of the middle and upper class due to death toll and heavy financial losses during war- socialist??

·       1930s- Priestley’s concern over social inequality led him to become a passionate socialist (equal rights, opportunity, wealth for all)

·       Used his role as a BBC broadcaster to promote his views and concept of a welfare state (free education and healthcare for all)

·       1944 the socialist party won the election and introduced welfare state- views in play in tune with public feeling

·       Now ww2 had ended he saw opportunity for people to build better and more generous society after seeing the destruction

·       Priestley gave them a glimpse of Bruh’s less enlightened past

·       First performed 1946- just following Labour’s landslide victory

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