social change and liberal society

change in social class and decline in deference 1918

WW1 caused a decline in upper class support.

• High deaths among upper class

  • 1914: 6 peers, 16 baronets, 6 knights and 261 sons of aristocrats died

  • Families forced to pay death duties and unable to afford their homes and land

• WC losing faith and trust in upper class due to anti-liberal policy of conscription and extensive death toll of 1.1 mil

• British saw military leadership as ‘donkey’s who sent volunteer soldiers to deaths

  • General Haig — Somme, 60,000 deaths on day 1

‘Decline in deference’:

• WW1 criticism of leadership

• Rep of the people act 1918 (fewer voters for right wing parties, rise of labour, liberal decline)

• 1919: fears of revolution in places like Clydeside

• Trade unions

  • Success with negotiating work conditions due to the fear of communism

  • 1926: the times attacks strikers as unpatriotic

  • Decline in union membership during great dep.

• WW2: evacuation, homelessness and rationing created solidarity between the classes, WC saw the other side and MC reported on poor state of deprived people, bedwetting was blamed by host families as caused by poor parenting

liberal society 1918-76

Evidence for liberal society:

• ‘Full employment’ commitment — fuels liberal society with disposable income, levels of social mobility made people question the class system, consumer capitalism and made unions more powerful in negotiating rights

• Growth of ‘satire’ — late 1950s, making fun and criticising politics/upper classes (e.g ‘that was the week that was’ show and ‘beyond the fringe’ stage show)

• ‘New wave’ cinema — late 1950s saw films about wc and new emerging class (e.g saturday night sunday morning about man who hates his boss but equally hates the wc community and enjoys the benefits of consumerism)

• Sex scandals — parties at stately home of wealthy Aster family, war minister Profumo in a relationship with a woman involved with a soviet attaché in 1963 (people shocked by politicians doing scandalous things but also that they were lying about it rather than admitting)

• 1950s: less than 1/10 of population received sex ed but ½ of women born 1924-34 had premarital sex (only 1/5 for age group 20 years older)

• 1960s: 1 in 3 boys and 1 in 6 girls had sex at 16-19

• 1967 sexual offences act decriminalised homosexuality

• Lady Chatterly trial — end of censorship of books and magazines and pornography industry (technically still illegal but laws allowed obscenity if it had reason or merit)

• Secularisation after war (church of England holy communion fell from 3 mil to 2.5 1935-45 and 2 mil by 1970)

Evidence against a liberal society:

• Attitudes towards sex in 1950s were similar to the 60s, and had been steadily changing throughout the century (e.g Chesser 1941 sex advice book ‘love without fear’) so argued that sexual revolution wasn’t as dramatic as made out to be

• Abortion and homosexuality laws were unpopular among public and politicians like Wolfden wanted to make harsher punishments for prostitution

• Most people didn’t experience a ‘swinging sixties’ and didn’t partake in hedonism

• Lady Chatterley trial, prosecuted under Obscene publications act 1959

• Moors murders 1966, newspapers focused on their premarital sexual relationship as connected to their violent crimes

• Moral panic about youth due to tabloid stories of crime and vandalism

• 1964: Mary whitehouse ‘clean up TV’ campaign against sex scenes, drinking, crime and criticisms of the royal family and NVALA 1965 condemned socialism with over 100,000 members

  • NVALA made up of people outside of London (associated with ‘swinging sixties’ and promiscuity)

  • It is possible that Whitehouse and supporters exaggerated its membership from the start

  • Little evidence media took NVALA seriously despite a lot of publicity and noise

• Malcolm Muggeridge — founded the festival of light organisation in late 60s (along with Whitehouse, Cliff Richard, Lord Longford etc)

  • Aimed to prevent sexualisation of TV and promote Christian teaching

  • Nationwide events in 1971, 100,000 took part in lighting beacons on hilltops

  • Did little to change TV or attitudes and evangelical approach alienated people who had same concerns but weren’t religious

• Lord Longford’s report into pornography, visited Copenhagen’s sex industry to investigate effects of no censorship and found 1959 Obscene publications act made it easy for pornography to be published, calling for censorship of materials that ‘outrage contemporary standards of decency’

changing status and role of women

1918-31:

• War work

  • Thousands worked as auxiliaries, drivers, nurses etc., women working on railways in public life

  • 1914: 200,000 women in metals and chemicals industry, 1918 saw 1 mil in those 2 fields

  • 11,000 women working in explosives factory in Gretna

  • Employed women returned to 1914 levels (5.7)

• Franchise

  • Women 30+ with land property requirements

    • 8.4 mil voters in Dec election

1920-31:

• Employment

  • Women had limited working opportunities due to prejudice, education and idea of ‘women’s work’

    • Clerical work, 1 mil employed as typists

  • MC women began being accepted into unis as a result of sex disqualification (removal) act 19199 which prevented the barring a career in law/civil service due to sex

  • 3,000 female medical practitioners and 180,000 nurses

  • 21 out of 6,000 architects were female

  • Women had to leave their job after they were married (1931 — 84% of female workforce was single)

• Personal life

  • Divorce — 1937 matrimonial causes act allowed when unfaithful or abandoned

  • Birth control — Stopes clinic 1921, by 1930 it was acceptable for women with health at risk and cotnraception was more common

  • Flapper look and lifestyle after 1918

• Politics

  • Never more than 5% of MPs were women (15 was the peak, in 1931)

    • They faced petty restrictions (e.g couldn’t use the dining room)

  • 150,000 joined labour between 1918-24

    • Labour still had traditional beliefs and there was only 9 MPs during interwar period

    • Their role was usually delivering leaflets or fundraising

  • 1930, less than 15% of local councillors were female, e.g Thelma Cazelet-keir in London as councillor and MP

1932-39:

• Rationing and family split during ww2

• Women starving to feed their families during great dep. (1933 Hungry England enquiry)

• Living below poverty line due to means tested unemployment relief

1945-51:

• War work

  • 1944 — 80,00 on farms, munitions factories, women’s voluntary service to shelter bombing victims, drivers, cooks, cryptanalysts like Joan Clarke, translators and spies

  • Better paid, new skills, experiences and seniority

• After war work

  • Women who remained in work were in ‘women’s fields’ like nursing etc (86% in 1951 of female workforce in teaching, factory etc.)

  • 1946 removal of marriage bar

• Mass observations

  • Women were ambivalent to working life, had values of previous generations

  • 1948 survey of 100 women didn’t see work as identity and only used for extra income

  • Women building careers seen to have failed primary role

• Housewives

  • Study in late 50s — 60% felt bored

  • Labour saving devices and leisure time

• NHS
  

1951-79:

• Sex discrimination act 1975

  • Fair employment practices and protection against discrimination

  • Tribunals to deal with workplace sexual harassment

  • Prejudice was still prevalent

• Equal pay 1970

  • Pay discrimination made illegal, came into effect in 1975 and prerequisite for joining European economic community

• Political progress

  • Rowbotham, writer for Black dwarf magazine, organised National women’s conference at Ruskin in 1970

    • Groups for women to express themselves and talk about experiences

  • Activism and anarchy in protest of miss world beauty contest

  • 3% of parliament was female under Maggie Thatcher

• Personal/social life

  • 47% of women had first child by 25 in 1971, dropped to 25% by end of the century

  • 1961 contraceptive pill for married women, 1 mil using it by 1971

  • 1967 abortion act

  • Research showed marriages were less patriarchal and there was more sharing of housework

  • Refuges for DV victims — national women’s aid federation 1974

  • Rape crisis centre 1973

  • 1975 MP James White wanted to roll back abortion rights, tabloids saying women abused abortion laws and 80,000 marched in protest of Corrie Bill that proposed abortion limitations

More info:

• Wartime experiences with extra money, independence and sociability shifted aspirations

• 1946 national insurance act didn’t allow non-working wives to claim benefits, making them reliant on men

• 1946: 65 birth control clinics, by 1963 there were 400

• Comedy writers and performers Joyce Grenfell and Jill day with shows in the 1950s

• 1967 abortion act supported by 70% of British public

• 1968 Ford dagenham strike, 300 sewing machinists demanded equal pay (awarded 95%)

• Labour pass employment protection act 1975 for maternity leave and can’t get sacked for being pregnant

• 1969 divorce reform act — can get divorced without having to give proof of their fault

• Illegal backstreet abortion performed by untrained people in their onw homes

  • 1966: 40 maternal-related deaths and 10,000 injuries

• Pill only became free in 1974 and generally only given to married women beforehand

• First permanent female news anchor, Angel Rippon in 1975
  

race relations and immigration

1918-39:

• Empire

  • Pseudoscience ‘social Darwinism’ 1880s, suggested a racial hierarchy existed

  • WW1: black and Asian communities grew due to labourers and soldiers in the isles

    • 1/3 of manpower during WW1 was made up of black and Indian soldiers/labourers, 1 mil Indian and 500,000 African

• Working rights

  • Increase in racist violence after the war due to immigrants ‘taking jobs’

  • 1919: demobilisation of the army lead to racist violence in Cardiff with 3 deaths

  • NUS (union for seamen) demanded jobs given to white sailors

    • 1919: strikes in Liverpool led to 120 black workers sacked

  • Alien orders act 1920 required migrants to register with police, coloured alien seamen act 1925 made migrants prove their citizenship

• Discrimination

  • League of coloured people found 80% of black/asian men out of work for prolonged period compared to 30% of white men 1934-35

• Anti-imperialism

  • Communist party CPGB and int. African service bureau

  • 1921 CPGB, high proportion of members from minority backgrounds incl. leader Saklatvala

  • 1930s, NUS forcing Arab and Somali seamen out in South Tyneside, CPGB organised regional strikes. Action unsuccessful, but proved some workers willing to support

  • British union of fascists, fire-bombing and Jew-bashing. CPGB helped with demonstration of 10,000 people in battle of Cable street 1936

• Education and health

  • Interwar period: 50 west Africans, 150 Caribbean and Indian students in top universities

  • Students expected to get good education and return to their own countries, e.g Harold Moody had to open his own medical practice after being refused employment

  • LCP fought for equal rights to healthcare

1945-onwards:

• War

  • Empire provided resources and manpower during ww2

  • Migrants excluded from well-paid jobs after

  • 1,200 Caribbean men in factories in Lancashire and Merseyside, 500,000 black African and 2 mil Indian men in armed forces

  • Promotions rare, refused due to ‘cultural differences’, social pressure against interracial marriage

  • 1942: America joins ww2, their segregated army meant colour bar had an ‘excuse’ to be enforced — cricketer Learie Constantine refused accommodation at imperial hotel due to white American guests

• Mass immigration

  • Labour shortages after war, immigrants coming to earn money

  • British nationality act 1948 allowed people frm coloneis to enter

  • SS windrush 1948, 492 Jamaican people

  • 1949 commonwealth (free and equal countries), old commonwealth = predominantly white like Australia and new = predominantly non-white like India

  • 3,000 nurses recruited 1948-54 from Caribbean

  • Frank Crichlow, Caribbean restaurant owner

• Racist reactions

  • Attlee and Churchill pressured new commonwealth countries to restrict availability of passports

  • Lord Salisbury: combatting racism will make Britain more attractive to immigrants

  • White violence, black and Asian men beat for dating white women, blamed for losing colonies, prosecuted

1958-79:

• 1958 notting hill riots

  • 300-700 white men beat black residents and homes + businesses

  • Little done by police to stop attacks

• Immigration policy (restrict ‘freedom of movement’)

  • Commonwealth immigration 1962 — Macmillan, needed confirmed employment to get in, 60+% supported

  • CI act 1968 — Wilson, no children 17+ entry, 70+% supported

  • Immigration act 1971 — Heath, partial and non-partial (could be repatriated), 60% supported

• Race relations (deal with racist discrimination with sanctioning)

  • RR act 1965 — removed the colour bar

  • RR act 1976 — outlawed racial discrimination (e.g in housing, employment)

  • RR act 1976 — outlawed to have ‘indirect’ discrimination (e.g ‘english as first language’)

• Multicultural society 1962

  • In order to avoid ban, black + Asian moved before they went into place, meaning populations doubled 1960-61

  • Lead to migrants staying when they’d originally planned to leave in fear of being denied re-entry

  • Immediate families could move

• Black power ‘radicalisation’

  • 1964 general election conservative slogan —> ‘if you desire a coloured for a neighbour vote labour’, Smethwick constituency Peter Griffiths used racial slurs

  • Labour introduced immigration acts too, became out of favour with migrants who had previously supported them

  • Darcus Howe — race today collective for exposing institutional racism

    • Housing, notting hill carnival police arrests

    • Michael x incited racial hatred, repatriated

• Far right white backlash

  • Enoch Powell MP Wolverhampton ‘rivers of blood’ 1968, immigration is a threat

  • National front party

• Roy Jenkins —> embracing differences