Changes to women 1918-1979 Britain Flashcards
Explain the difference between the 1918 ROPA and 1928 ROPA?
1918 (not all women) - 1928 All women got the vote on the same terms as men (aged 21+)
- 1928 ROPA
What percentage of women MPs was there never more than in the interwar years?
5%
What happened to women’s employment levels when WWI ended?
The numbers of women employed returned to 1914 levels when war ended (c. 5.7 million)
Explain the general differences between working class women and middle class women in the interwar years?
Working class women (women’s work) Middle class women (clerical roles)
List some of the roles women did during WWII?
Women’s Land Army (farming - 44’ 80,000 women)
Munitions factories, aircraft, clothing manufacture
Translators, analysts, some spies
Women’s voluntary service
Explain the attitude that Attlee’s government had towards changing women’s traditional roles?
Fairly traditional/ socially conservative. They did not want the social upheaval of war to result in significant social change.
How did the 1937 Matrimonial Causes Act change divorce?
Allowed divorce if either partner was unfaithful, as well as desertion after 3 years. (Opposed by the Catholic Church)
Who founded the first birth control clinic in London in 1921?
Dr Marie Stopes
Give one example of greater female self-expression in the interwar years?
Flapper girls
Explain the effect that the Great Depression had on women?
Particularly in working class families, the Depression had a disproportionate impact on women. Many women would often go without food to help provide for the family. Many families lived below the poverty line.
Explain two reasons why it could be argued that many women were happy to return to their domestic role after WWII?
- Rationing, families being split up and lost housing all had negative effects. By the time the war was over many were happy to return to some sense of normality in their domestic role.
- Attlee’s government encouraged women to not break with their traditional domestic role.
