How far did Society Change in the 1950s?

Question 1

What changes did women face in the 1950s?

Answer 1

• some improvements in work opportunities, especially or middle class professionals (e.g. equal pay for teachers 1952 and for civil servants 1954)
• technological improvements in the home (e.g. between 1957 and 1959 number of households owning a washing machine rose by 54% - one was called “The Liberator” and a refrigerator by 58%)
• improvements in medical access through NHS (e.g. maternity care)

Question 2

What continuities did women face in the 1950s?

Answer 2

• still limited work opportunities, especially working class women
• trade unionists reluctant to support women at work due to concerns over men’s wages and employment
• seen as housewives: 75% of all women were married
• mortgages and bank accounts were in men’s names

Question 3

What changes did the youth face in the 1950s?

Answer 3

• affluence
• technological improvements (e.g. radio, labour saving implements in the home)
• end of National Service increased leisure opportunities
• baby boom (1959 5 milllion teenagers 10% of population in Britain) led to new leisure facilities, magazines and television aimed at the youth
• youth movements (teds/mods/rockers) with some violence

Question 4

What continuities did the youth face in the 1950s?

Answer 4

• exaggerated by the press (e.g. the violence)
• confined to certain areas, London and urban areas
• late in arrival, National Service ended 1960, rock n roll imported from USA

Question 5

What are the change to the The Establishment in the 1950s?

Answer 5

• greater criticism though the CND’s rise in 1958, criticisms levelled at government integrity over Suez crisis and Profumo Affair
• satire boom and ‘angry young men’ powerful cultural movement affecting middle class opinion

Question 6

What continuities did The Establishment face in the 1950s?

Answer 6

• class system remained strong in terms of access to institutions (parliament/education)
• many changes/cultural movements didn’t have an impact on the working class
• still strong socio-economic structures and class divisions

Question 7

What was on Tv at the time portrayed a change in social attitudes and tensions?

Answer 7

• 1959 crime thriller Sapphire, theme of racial tension and daring portrayal of sex and violence for at the time
• police series Dixon of Dock Green
• gritty realism of Z Cars set in Merseyside
• 1962 powerful drama Cathy Come Home about homelessness by Ken Loach

Question 8

What novels were there at the time to portray a change in social attitudes and tensions?

Answer 8

• Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange portraying gang violence
• 1962 Penguin books published D.H Lawrence sexually explicit novel Lady Chatterly’s Lover. It resulted in high-profile court case under the Obscenity Act. Penguin won and 2 million copies of the book were sold.

Question 9

What films and plays were there at the time to portray a change in social attitudes and tensions?

Answer 9

• play by Shelagh Delaney (working class women) called Taste of Honey 1958. Told story of young unmarried woman who becomes pregnant after relationship with black sailor
• Victim 1961 starring Dirk Bogarde was the first english-language film to mention ‘homosexual’.

Question 10

What backlash was there to the new films and television programmes that reflected these new changes in social attitudes and tensions?

Answer 10

• led by Mary Whitehouse and supported by parts of the national press
• also criticism from the left wing that the concentration on material affluence had negative effects, undermining decency in society.
• majority opinion in Britain remained socially conservative