Society in the 1970s (AQA A Level History: Component 2: Depth study): Revision Note

The progress of feminism and the Sex Discrimination Act, 1975

The Women's Liberation Movement

• The 1970s were the height of second-wave feminism, which had developed during the 1960s

  • The first National Women's Liberation Conference was held at Ruskin College, Oxford, in February 1970

    • It agreed four demands: equal pay, equal education and opportunity, 24-hour nurseries, and free contraception and abortion on demand

    • Women's liberation groups then spread across the country

• Campaigners used protest to draw attention to women's position

  • Protesters disrupted the Miss World contest in November 1970

  • Demonstrations in London and Liverpool in March 1971 demanded equal pay and free 24-hour nurseries

• Feminists disagreed over what women's liberation required

  • Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch (1970) became one of the movement's best-known books

  • Black and Asian women formed their own groups, such as the Brixton Black Women's Group (1973), arguing that the movement overlooked race

  • Radical feminists identified patriarchy as the main cause of women's oppression and campaigned for reproductive rights

  • Socialist feminists argued that women's inequality was linked to social class and economic dependence

• The movement developed its own media

  • The feminist magazine Spare Rib published its first issue in 1972

    • It became one of the best-known publications linked to the movement

Approach: In this later interview, Rowe describes the counterculture as male-dominated and argues that its supposed freedoms did not give women an equal voice

The source is useful for showing why some women believed that a separate feminist movement was needed. However, it is a retrospective interview by an activist closely involved in the movement, so it is stronger for showing how feminists understood the period than for showing what all women thought at the time

Campaigns on violence and reproductive rights

• Feminists campaigned for greater control over fertility

  • Contraception, including the pill, became free on the National Health Service (NHS) for all women, married or single, in 1974

    • It became more accepted and widely used

• Violence against women became a major campaign issue

  • Erin Pizzey opened the first women's refuge in Chiswick, London

  • Rape crisis centres began opening from 1976

  • The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act (1976) allowed women to apply for court orders restraining violent partners

• Reclaim the Night marches were held across Britain in 1977

  • They followed the murders committed by the Yorkshire Ripper

  • Campaigners demanded that women should be able to use public spaces without fear

The legislation of 1975

• The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) was the main law passed that year to tackle discrimination against women

  • It made discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status unlawful in:

    • employment

    • education

    • access to goods, services and premises

• The Act created the Equal Opportunities Commission

  • It monitored the Sex Discrimination Act and the Equal Pay Act

  • It could bring legal proceedings against employers

• Three other Acts affecting women were passed or came into force in 1975

  • The Employment Protection Act (1975) introduced paid maternity leave and made dismissal due to pregnancy unlawful (in force 1976–77)

  • The Social Security Pensions Act (1975), introduced by Barbara Castle, improved pension rights for women whose contributions had been limited by caring responsibilities

  • The Equal Pay Act (1970) finally came into force five years after it was passed

    • Its passage had been influenced partly by the requirements of Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC)

How far did women's position improve?

• Several changes increased women's legal and financial independence

  • From 1971, women could take out a mortgage without a male guarantor

  • Women's pay rose from 59% of men's pay in 1970 to 70% by 1977

• The United Nations established International Women's Day in 1977

• Women were under-represented in senior and managerial jobs

• Enforcement remained limited

  • The Equal Opportunities Commission launched only nine investigations between 1976 and 1983

  • Only 10% of workplace sex discrimination claims succeeded

    • Discrimination was often difficult to prove

• Employers found ways around the Equal Pay Act

  • Women's jobs could be made slightly different from men's jobs, preventing direct comparison

• Trade unions remained dominated by men

  • The Trades Union Congress (TUC) did not publish its charter, Equality for Women within Trade Unions, until 1979

Race and immigration

Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Immigration and settlement after 1971

• The Immigration Act (1971) tightened entry into Britain

  • Migrants from the New Commonwealth generally needed either a work permit for a specific job or a parent or grandparent born in Britain:

    • a guaranteed job

    • a parent or grandparent born in Britain

  • The Act took effect in 1973

    • Those entering under it did not automatically gain the right to settle permanently

• Events overseas still brought new arrivals

  • Idi Amin expelled Uganda's Asian population in 1972

    • Around 28,000 Ugandan Asians came to Britain as an exception to the Act

  • Migration from the Indian subcontinent continued

    • This included migrants from Bangladesh after its separation from Pakistan in 1971

• By 1974, over one million New Commonwealth immigrants had settled in Britain

  • Around 435,000 came from India and Pakistan

  • Around 325,000 came from the West Indies

  • Around 150,000 came from Africa

• Settlement often developed where family and cultural networks had already existed

  • Brick Lane in London later became known as Banglatown

  • Leicester received many East African Asians

• Political representation remained limited

  • Only 10 ethnic minority councillors were elected in the 1974 London borough elections

    • This had risen to 35 by 1978

The National Front and racial violence

• The National Front grew during the 1970s

  • It was founded in 1967

  • It supported the repatriation of immigrants

  • It had up to 20,000 members by 1976

• It achieved some electoral support

  • Martin Webster won 16% of the vote in the West Bromwich by-election in May 1973

  • By 1977, the National Front was described as Britain's fourth-largest political party

    • However, it never won a parliamentary seat

• The National Front often marched through areas with a large immigrant population

  • These marches frequently met counter-protests

  • Violence sometimes followed

• Racial violence increased

  • The Trades Council of East London recorded over 100 incidents, including two murders, between January 1976 and August 1978

  • Assaults and robberies of Asian and Afro-Caribbean people rose by a third

• Blair Peach, an Anti-Nazi League supporter, was fatally injured during a protest in Southall in April 1979

  • He was a teacher from New Zealand

  • The Metropolitan Police later accepted that one of its officers had probably struck him

• The rise of the National Front increased pressure on the main parties

  • By the late 1970s, the Conservatives promised tighter immigration controls

Approach: Thatcher argued that immigration numbers should be reduced and warned that many people feared being “swamped” by a different culture

The source is useful for showing how immigration had become a major electoral issue. It also shows how the Conservatives tried to attract voters concerned about immigration. However, Thatcher was speaking to a television audience and wanted to gain political support, so her language was chosen to influence public opinion rather than give a neutral account

Policing and the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival

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• Relations between the police and black communities worsened during the 1970s

• Ethnic minorities were poorly represented in the police

  • In 1976, only around 70 of roughly 22,000 Metropolitan Police officers came from an ethnic minority background

• Many young black people believed that the police treated them as suspects rather than protecting them

  • Complaints focused particularly on the use of stop and search

• Serious disorder took place at the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival

  • More than 300 people were injured

  • Some newspapers and politicians called for the carnival to be banned

  • Accounts disagreed over how the disorder began and who was responsible

Approach: Golden was present when the disorder began and described the police using batons against a crowd

The source is useful because it is an eyewitness account of police conduct. However, Golden was working for a left-wing newspaper that was critical of the police, so his account should be compared with other witnesses and official evidence. Additionally, it was published in 2013, many years after the event

Legislation and anti-racist campaigning

• The Race Relations Act (1976) extended earlier laws

  • It outlawed indirect discrimination

    • This included cases where discrimination was hidden behind apparently neutral rules

• The Act created the Commission for Racial Equality

  • It would carry out investigations

  • It could require witnesses to appear in these investigations

• Anti-racist organisations grew in response to the National Front

  • Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976

    • It followed comments made by guitarist Eric Clapton in support of Enoch Powell

  • The Anti-Nazi League was formed in 1977

  • Around 100,000 people joined in a march from Trafalgar Square to a concert in Victoria Park on 30th April 1978

• Migrant workers also organised their own campaigns

  • The Grunwick dispute was led mainly by Asian women workers

  • They campaigned for trade union recognition

  • The dispute showed immigrant workers acting for themselves rather than being represented by others

Change and continuity in popular culture

• Black Britons became more visible in public life

  • Viv Anderson became the first black footballer to play for England in 1978

  • Reggae and ska became more popular

  • Local authorities began to adopt policies of multiculturalism

• Open racism continued

  • Black footballers faced crowds who made monkey noises and threw bananas

  • The Black and White Minstrel Show, which used white performers in blackface, continued until 1978

• In 1980, the Commission for Racial Equality warned that racial prejudice and discrimination remained widespread

Youth

Skinheads

• Skinhead style developed from the mod scene at the end of the 1960s

  • It was mainly associated with working-class young people

  • Early skinheads drew heavily on Jamaican music and culture

  • Many skinheads remained apolitical

• The movement changed during the 1970s

  • By the late 1970s some had become linked to the National Front

  • Some also took part in football hooliganism and attacks on people from ethnic minority backgrounds

Punk

• Punk emerged in 1975 and 1976

  • It was influenced by American bands such as the New York Dolls, who rejected commercialised popular music

  • British bands included the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and the Buzzcocks

• Punk music rejected the polished sound of mainstream pop and rock

  • Songs were usually short, fast and built around simple guitar chords

  • Vocals were often shouted or delivered aggressively

  • The emphasis was on energy and attitude rather than technical skill

• Its ideas were often described as nihilistic

  • Punks rejected the optimism and alternative lifestyles associated with the hippie movement

• Punk fashion was designed to shock

  • Clothing included ripped T-shirts, leather trousers and safety pins

  • Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren sold punk clothing from their shop on the King's Road in London

  • The Sex Pistols were managed by Malcolm McLaren and fronted by Johnny Rotten

• Concerts could be confrontational

  • Performers and audiences sometimes spat at one another

  • Scuffles were common

• Punk created a moral panic

  • The Sex Pistols swore during a live television interview

    • The Daily Mirror responded with the headline “The Filth and the Fury!”

• The Sex Pistols released "God Save the Queen" in 1977 during the Silver Jubilee

  • The BBC and commercial radio stations refused to play it

    • It still reached number two in the charts

Youth, race and politics

• Young people took different sides in the racial conflicts of the decade

  • Some skinheads were attracted to the National Front

  • Many more young people joined Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League

• Music became part of this political divide

  • Punk bands such as The Clash drew on reggae and ska

  • Anti-racist concerts brought punk and reggae performers together

Approach: Widgery presents the concert as a meeting of three generations of protest:

• the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marches of the 1950s

• the protesters of 1968

• the punks of the late 1970s

The source is useful for showing how protesters understood Rock Against Racism as a new stage in left-wing protest. However, Widgery was closely involved in the movement, so his account reflects the enthusiasm of a committed participant

Football hooliganism

• Football hooliganism was already a problem in 1970 and became more serious during the decade

• Organised hooligan groups developed around particular football clubs

  • One example was the Chelsea Headhunters

• Violence sometimes made areas around football grounds unsafe for visiting supporters

  • On match days, some areas became no-go zones for fans of other clubs

• The problem became so closely associated with Britain that it was known abroad as the "English disease"

Approach: John separates the violent minority from a wider group of football supporters. He argues that hooliganism was frightening families and children away from matches

The source is useful for showing how the government presented football violence as a threat to the future of the sport. However, as a minister answering criticism in Parliament, John had a reason to sound concerned while avoiding the suggestion that all young supporters were violent

Environmentalism

The growth of environmental campaigning

• Environmentalism brought together concerns that had previously been treated separately:

  • industrial pollution

  • wildlife protection

  • organic farming

  • radiation and nuclear waste

• The word ecology became widely used to describe the health of the natural environment

• Photographs of Earth taken from space presented the planet as fragile

  • This changed how environmental problems were understood

• Environmental ideas also developed from the counterculture of the 1960s

  • The counterculture had criticised consumerism and commercialisation

  • Some campaigners questioned whether scientific and economic progress always improved people's lives

Publications and events that raised awareness

• Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962, linked pesticides such as DDT to the decline of birds and other wildlife

  • It had an international impact

• The Hunt Saboteurs Association was formed in 1963

  • It used direct action against fox hunting

• The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked off the Cornish coast in 1967

  • The resulting oil spill increased concern about marine pollution

• Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, published in 1968, warned about the effects of overpopulation

• Teddy Goldsmith's A Blueprint for Survival, published in 1972, argued for:

  • greater self-sufficiency

  • less industrial production

  • a society less dependent on continual economic growth

Pressure groups and direct action

• 1970 was named European Conservation Year

  • Environmental campaigns became more organised

• Friends of the Earth was founded in the United States in 1969

  • It later expanded into Britain and France

• Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver in 1971

  • It first campaigned against US nuclear weapons testing in Alaska; its campaigns against whaling began in 1975

  • Greenpeace UK followed in 1977

• Anti-nuclear protest changed its focus

  • Earlier campaigns had opposed nuclear weapons

  • During the 1970s, campaigners increasingly opposed nuclear power

  • Their concerns included radioactive waste and the risk of accidents

  • There were five incidents at the Sellafield nuclear plant between 1957 and 1979

  • The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 increased international concern about nuclear safety

Animal rights and direct action

• Animal rights became part of the environmental movement

• In 1975, there was public anger after it emerged that beagles in laboratories had been made to smoke for research

• The Animal Liberation Front was formed in 1976

  • Its supporters carried out direct action against laboratories

  • In 1982, a group calling itself the Animal Rights Militia sent letter bombs to party leaders, including Margaret Thatcher

• Direct action divided environmental campaigners

  • Some supported lawful protest and pressure group activity

  • Others defended more confrontational methods

Environmentalism in popular culture

• Television brought environmental issues to a large audience

  • Many programmes were produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol

• David Attenborough's Life on Earth was broadcast in 1979

  • It used new colour filming techniques

  • It attracted audiences around the world

• James Lovelock's Gaia theory gained attention in the same year

  • It presented Earth as a single self-regulating system

• Environmental concerns also appeared in fiction and comedy

  • Richard Adams's Watership Down, published in 1972, followed rabbits whose warren was destroyed for a housing development

  • The television sitcom The Good Life, first shown in 1975, followed a couple attempting self-sufficiency in suburbia

Environmentalism enters politics

• Government structures changed at the beginning of the decade

  • The Department of the Environment was created in 1970

  • The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution was also established in 1970

  • MPs disagreed about whether these new bodies amounted to a real environmental policy

Approach: Meacher argued that the government lacked a clear and organised environmental policy

The source is useful for showing that environmental policy was being challenged in Parliament by the early 1970s. However, Meacher was an opposition MP criticising the government, so he had a reason to emphasise failures and overlook measures already introduced

Approach: Griffiths was replying to Meacher in the same debate as above. He defended the government’s record by pointing to the creation of the Department of the Environment and its attempt to bring different responsibilities together

The source is useful for showing how the government presented its environmental policy. However, Griffiths was defending his department, so he had a reason to stress coordination and progress

• The Control of Pollution Act (1974) covered:

  • waste disposal

  • water pollution

  • noise

  • air pollution

• A green political party also emerged

  • The People's Party was founded in 1973

    • Five candidates stood in the February 1974 general election

  • It became the Ecology Party in 1975

    • It stood 53 candidates in the 1979 general election

  • The party won no seats

    • However, environmentalism had gained a permanent place in British politics by the end of the decade

How much did British society change in the 1970s?

• British society changed in important ways during the 1970s

  • However, new laws and campaigns did not remove older inequalities, prejudice or social tension

    • Some key evidence for each side is outlined below

Areas of change

• Women's legal position changed significantly

  • The Sex Discrimination Act, Employment Protection Act and Social Security Pensions Act all passed in 1975

  • The Equal Pay Act (1970) also came into force that year

• Women gained greater financial independence

  • Women's pay rose from 59% of men's pay in 1970 to 70% by 1977

  • Women could obtain mortgages without a male guarantor

• Race relations law became stronger

  • The Race Relations Act (1976) covered indirect discrimination

  • It also created the Commission for Racial Equality, which had powers to investigate complaints

• Anti-racist campaigning grew into a mass movement

  • Around 100,000 people joined the Rock Against Racism march and concert in April 1978

  • Some local authorities began adopting multicultural policies

• Environmentalism entered national politics

  • The Department of the Environment was created in 1970

  • The Ecology Party stood 53 candidates in the 1979 general election

• Youth culture widened the boundaries of public expression

  • The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" was banned by the BBC but still reached number two in 1977

  • Punk fashion, music, and language challenged older ideas about respectability

Limits to change

• Laws supporting women were often weakly enforced

  • The Equal Opportunities Commission launched only nine investigations between 1976 and 1983

  • Only 10% of workplace sex discrimination claims succeeded

• Employers could avoid equal pay requirements

  • Women's jobs were sometimes given different titles or duties so they could not be directly compared with men's work

  • The TUC did not publish its equality charter until 1979

• Organised racism became more visible

  • The National Front had up to 20,000 members

    • By 1977 it was described as Britain's fourth-largest political party

  • This growth came one year after the Race Relations Act (1976)

• Racial violence and distrust of the police continued

  • Assaults and robberies of Asian and Afro-Caribbean people rose by a third

  • Blair Peach was killed during an anti-National Front protest in 1979

  • In 1980, the Commission for Racial Equality reported that racial prejudice and discrimination remained widespread

• Environmentalism gained influence but little direct political power

  • The Ecology Party won no seats in 1979

  • Ministers were still criticised for lacking a clear environmental strategy

• Concern about youth behaviour was not new

  • Most young people were not punks, skinheads, or football hooligans

  • Earlier post-war decades had produced similar fears about youth culture