Society Extended

Question 1

What was the growth in television during this time?

Answer 1

• By 1971, 91% of homes had a TV.
• The choice of what to watch was expanding with ITV having launched in 1955 and BBC2 in 1964, the first channel to broadcast in colour by 1967.
• Hugh Greene as BBC Director General was a transformative appointment. He diverted more money to the BBC, revised the guidelines on nudity and swearing and commissioned more programmes.

Question 2

How was the nature of TV programmes changing?

Answer 2

• More exciting and introspective shows like ‘The Prisoner’ in 1967.
• Comedy shows like Month Python’s Flying Circus in 1969 pioneered the sketch show format.
• That Was the Week That Was was a satirical political programme launched in 1962 that grew in popularity during the late 60s.

Question 3

What was the radio situation?

Answer 3

• Cheap, portable radios allowed more freedom for music listening.
• Young people listened to ‘pirate radios’ before they were banned. They then enjoyed the pop music, and former pirate radio DJ Tony Blackburn, on the newly launched Radio 1 in 1967.
• Pirate radios like Radio Caroline off the Essex coast were very popular until the Marine Broadcasting Act of 1967 made offshore radio illegal.

Question 4

What was the situation with print media?

Answer 4

• ‘The Sun’ was launched in 1964 claiming to be the newspaper of ‘the age we live in’. It was bought and made into a populist tabloid in 1969 by Rupert Murdoch.
• Private Eye continued its popular political satire. They established a column titled ‘Mrs Wilson’s Diary’ satirising Wilson’s supposed working class roots from the eyes of his wife.

Question 5

What was the growth in leisure activities at home?

Answer 5

• Increased TV ownership, which accounted for 23% of leisure time, was a big contributor. It fuelled other popular activities such as gardening with programmes like ‘Gardener’s World’.
• DIY for men and cookery and knitting for women was encouraged with new gadgetry.
• Car ownership increased exponentially as car travel accounted for 77% of journeys. Cars were cheaper and more pragmatic, allowing people to travel to shopping centres and leisure facilities further away and more quickly.

Question 6

What was the growth in holidaying at the time?

Answer 6

• Traditional holiday destination like Butlins or Blackpool were replaced by caravanning.
• Britannia Airways was founded in 1964 and took largely the middle classes to Spain, the Canary Islands, Malta, Bulgaria and North Africa.
• Package holidays abroad grew from 4% - 8.4% from 1966 to 1971. Two weeks in Spain cost as little as £20 and 30% of all overseas package holidays were taken there.

Question 7

What technological developments came in the 60s?

Answer 7

• The Anglo-French partnership worked to build the Concorde, with production starting in 1965.
• The then tallest building in Britain, The Post Office Tower, opened in 1965 to improve coms.
• Developments were made in photography, chemical engineering and the transistor radio gifted to medicine better X-ray equipment.

Question 8

What was the Theatre Act of 1968?

Answer 8

• Supported by Roy Jenkins and Laurence Olivier the act abolished censorship in theatre, and made the Lord Chamberlain devoid of his role in doing so.

Question 9

What plays challenged dogmatic societal conservatism?

Answer 9

• Edward Bond’s ‘Saved’ and ‘Early Morning’ both presented gritty, immoral scenes on the harsh realities of 60s life in London.
• ‘Hair’ an American musical embraced the removal of censorship in presenting overt nudity in stage at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1968.

Question 10

What was the film situation?

Answer 10

• They continued to be subject to strict categorisation by the British Board of Film Censors.
• However, more permissive films did capture the public zeitgeist - ‘Alfie’ (1966) ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’ (1967).

Question 11

What was the situation for women in education?

Answer 11

• Women accounted for only 28% of students in higher education and in 1970 only 5% of women reached managerial posts.
• Girls still frequently left school at minimum age and married young.
• Few made it to top professions.

Question 12

What was the NHS (Family Planning) Act and it’s impact?

Answer 12

Passed in 1967, it allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives and contraceptive advice.
- Changing attitudes, however, meant illegitimate births rose from 5.8% in 1969 to 8.2% in 1970, along with the amount of marriages ending in divorce.

Question 13

What books and articles encouraged the feminism movement?

Answer 13

• Betty Friedan’s ‘The Feminine Mystique’ (1963) arguing women were unfulfilled and restricted in their lives.
• Germaine Greer’s ‘The Female Eunuch’ (1970).

Question 14

What advances were made in the women’s lib movement?

Answer 14

• A rally in 1969 led to the establishment of the Women’s National Co-ordination Committee, with the first National Women’s Liberation Conference being held in 1970.

Question 15

What demands were put forward at the National Women’s Liberation Conference in 1970?

Answer 15

• Equal Pay.
• Free contraception and abortions on request.
• Equal education and job opportunities.
• Free 24-hour childcare.

Question 16

What was the Dagenham Strike 1968?

Answer 16

• Women working at the Ford Dagenham plant were paid 85% of mens wages so went on strike for 187 days campaigning for equal pay.
• Their strike action and the sympathy of Barbara Castle led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1970.

Question 17

Which 1970 Acts showed progress for women?

Answer 17

• The Matrimonial Property Act established the work of the wife should be accounted for in divorce settlements.
• The Equal Pay Act established the principle for equal pay and then came into effect in 1975.

Question 18

What 5 contradictions were holding back women during this time?

Answer 18

• Labour saving devices helped women escape from tiresome domestic labour BUT advertising for these reinforced the role of a woman as the housewife.
• Increased education and access to higher education encouraged expectations BUT sit was difficult for them to progress the career path.
• Increased availability of jobs gave women greater independence BUT they were still assumed to be responsible for home and children.
• They had greater control over family planning and less fear of unwanted pregnancies BUT men could avoid responsibility for family planning.
• Easier divorce created greater freedoms BUT there was still a lack of economic independence.

Question 19

Who was Mary Whitehouse and what did she do?

Answer 19

• She was a moral campaigner who ran a ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign and set up the National Viewers and Listeners Association in 1965 which, on gaining 100,000 members, proved a formidable voice against permissiveness.

Question 20

What was the impact of drugs in the permissive society?

Answer 20

• Cocaine and heroin addictions became 10x more prevalent in the first half of the 60s and softer drugs were more commonplace.
• The ‘free love’ ‘hippie lifestyle’ and the Beatles use of LSD contributed to a growing craze.

Question 21

What was the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Wootton Report?

Answer 21

• 1967, made it unlawful to posses cannabis and cocaine.
• The 1968 Wootton Report advocated legalising soft drugs like cannabis, but the
  Is was rejected by Home Secretary Callaghan.

Question 22

How can the degree of permissiveness be proven to be exaggerated?

Answer 22

• Polls found most people were either virgins or married their first and only sexual partner.
• There was a conservative reaction to a lot of the liberal legislation, with only 5% saying such legislation was their favourite development over the time.

Question 23

How was permissiveness shown in Youth Culture?

Answer 23

• Clashes with parents over fashion, music and moral standards - Mods and Rockers.
• Women wore trousers, men started to wear velvets, satins and bright colours.
• New pop music spread by Top of the Pops (1964) combined with new dances and jargon to challenge the old fashioned music of older generations.

Question 24

What shows a lack of permissiveness amongst the youth?

Answer 24

• Alcohol, tobacco and caffeine were actually used more than illegal drugs.
• Most spent more time listening to music in their bedrooms than at youth clubs or festivals.

Question 25

What celebrities shaped popular culture in Britain?

Answer 25

• The Beatles and The Who.
• Fashion designer Mary Quant.
• Actors like Michael Caine and Diana Rigg.

Question 26

What were the different youth subcultures in the 1960s?

Answer 26

• Skinheads wore Doc Martens and evolved from the Mods.
• Hippies embraced flower power and emphasised environmentalism, free love and peace whilst rejecting social conventions.

Question 27

What are some examples of Anti-Vietnam Protests?

Answer 27

• Teach-ins at Oxford and LSE in 1965.
• The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign was set up in 1966, gaining considerable student support.
• In March 1968, violent clashes took place in the ‘battle of Grosvenor square’ outside the US embassy with 200 arrested.
• A later protest involving 30,000 in October 1968 was more peaceful.

Question 28

What was the effect of the anti-war riots?

Answer 28

• Had a big effect on the labour parties conscience however polls showed that ‘ordinary voters’ didn’t care much for foreign affairs.

Question 29

What did surveys show about public attitudes to immigrants?

Answer 29

• A North London survey in 1965 showed:
• 1/5 objected to working with back or Asian people.
• half said they wouldn’t live next door to a black person.
• 9/10 said they disapproved of mixed marriages.

Question 30

What was the first Race Relations Act?

Answer 30

• Passed in 1965, it forbade discrimination in public places in the grounds of colour, race or ethnic or natural origins.
• A Race Relations Board was set up to hear complaints but it couldn’t compel witnesses to testify so out of the 982 complaints in its first year, 734 were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Question 31

What was the Commonwealth Immigration Act?

Answer 31

• Passed in 1968 after the sudden influx of Kenyan Asians prompting hysteria among the public.
• It limited the right of return to Britain for non-white Commonwealth citizens.
• 3/4 of voters supported the act.

Question 32

What was the impact of Enoch Powell?

Answer 32

• Powell’s 1968 ‘rivers of blood’ speech warned people of the growing tide of immigration.
• Whilst sacked as a result from the shadow cabinet, Gallup polls found 75% supported what Powell said.
• Strikes by dockers and meat porters marched to Downing Street to protest his sacking and he received thousands of letters of approbation sent to him.

Question 33

What was the second race relations act?

Answer 33

Passed 1968, it banned discrimination in housing, employment, insurance and other services and the Race Relations Board were given further powers.

Question 34

What were the failings of the 1968 race relations act?

Answer 34

• Employers could discriminate against non-whites in the grounds of ‘racial balance’.
• Complaints against the police were excluded from law
• the Race Relations Board only upheld 10% of the 1241 complaints it received, and complaints remained low as victims had little faith in getting effective redress.

Question 35

What positive aspects of immigration were evident?

Answer 35

• The Notting Hill became an annual event after 1964.
• Asian corner shops and Chinese takeaways introduced new foodstuffs.
• Youth culture embraced new ethnic communities - Hippies wore Indian and African cottons, whilst others enjoyed West Indian music like jazz and ska.
• The Beatles promoted Eastern music by incorporating it in songs, and advocated meditation, yoga, ‘love and peace’ and soft drugs.