Female Equality and the Permissive Society (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Female Equality and the Permissive Society

Progress towards female equality

Traditional gender roles and their persistence

Throughout the 1960s, dominant social expectations dictated that women should primarily fulfil the role of wife and mother, maintaining a clean home and caring for children and husband. This belief remained particularly entrenched among the working classes, where it had been the norm since the 1950s. The media reinforced these expectations through advertising that portrayed women exclusively as housewives, even as other aspects of society began to shift.

At the lower end of the social scale, girls' education continued to carry a domestic emphasis. Many girls left school at the minimum age and married young, their education having prepared them primarily for household management rather than professional careers. This pattern reflected deeply embedded assumptions about women's natural roles and limited their opportunities for social and economic advancement.

The emergence of second-wave feminism

Second-wave feminism refers to the renewed feminist movement that emerged in the 1960s, moving beyond the suffrage campaigns of the early twentieth century to address broader inequalities in education, employment, and domestic life. The movement originated in the United States when Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in 1963, arguing that women were unfulfilled by their restricted lives. This critique resonated with many women in Britain, where growing access to education, particularly among the middle classes, had created rising expectations that were frequently disappointed.

The expansion of female education generated mounting frustration as few women progressed to senior positions. In 1970, women accounted for only 28 per cent of students in higher education, and a mere 5 per cent of women ever reached managerial posts. This represented a stark ceiling on female ambition, as educational gains failed to translate into professional advancement.

Employment and economic inequality

Before 1970, employers could legally pay women less than men for comparable work, creating systematic economic disadvantage. Employment opportunities for women existed, but many were concentrated in the clerical and service sectors, which offered limited prospects and poor pay. Some women wished to continue working after having children, but working mothers were often portrayed by the media as unnatural and selfish. Childminders remained rare in the 1960s, and private nurseries were available only to wealthy families.

These contradictions created a confusing landscape for women. Labour-saving devices freed women from some domestic drudgery, yet advertising continued to define them primarily as housewives. The increased availability of jobs offered greater independence, but women remained responsible for home and children. Greater control over family planning through contraception liberated women from unwanted pregnancy, yet men could avoid responsibility for family planning. Easier divorce created more freedom, but women still lacked economic independence.

Legislative progress and its limitations

The National Health Service (Family Planning) Act of 1967 allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives and contraceptive advice for the first time. This represented a significant shift in attitudes, though changes came gradually. The number of illegitimate births fell from 8.2 per cent in 1960 to 8.2 per cent in 1970, while marriages ending in divorce increased during the same period.

The feminist movement gained momentum through influential publications. Juliet Mitchell's Women: The Longest Revolution (1966) and Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch (1970) explored women's position in society, and numerous Women's Liberation groups formed across the UK to campaign for social and economic equality.

A rally in Britain in 1969 led to the establishment of the Women's National Co-ordination Committee, which brought together various strands of the feminist movement. At the first National Women's Liberation Conference held at Ruskin College, Oxford in February 1970, four demands were articulated:

• Equal pay
• Free contraception and abortion on request
• Equal educational and job opportunities
• Free 24-hour childcare

Some progress resulted from these campaigns. The 1970 Matrimonial Property Act established that a wife's work, whether in paid employment or in the home, should be taken into account in divorce settlements. The 1970 Equal Pay Act established the principle of equal pay for equal work, though it did not come into force for another five years.

The limits of change by 1970

The feminist movement did not achieve substantial progress until the 1970s. Despite some breakthroughs, by the end of the 1960s inequalities and discrimination persisted, and traditional stereotyping of gender roles remained strong. The period represented one of evolution rather than revolution for women. Times were changing, but the 1960s marked the beginning of a longer process rather than its completion.

The advent of better contraceptive methods that reduced the inevitability of pregnancy was certainly liberating for many women. However, this was more beneficial for men as well. The ability to divorce more easily liberated women to escape difficult relationships, yet it was often women who were left struggling to support themselves and their children without adequate economic independence or social support systems.

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Changes in moral attitudes and the 'permissive society'

Defining the permissive society

The term 'permissive society' refers to a time of general sexual liberation, with changes in public and private morals and a new openness about sexuality. Critics used the term in a negative way, believing it represented a decline in conventional moral standards. This perceived shift was encouraged by the contraceptive pill, the spread of mass media, and the enactment of liberal legislation during the 1960s.

The poet Philip Larkin captured this perceived transformation in his 1974 poem 'Annus Mirabilis', which claimed that "Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three / (which was rather late for me) – / Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles' first LP." Larkin's verse linked the 1960s to the birth of the permissive society, suggesting a sudden and dramatic shift in sexual mores.

Television and media changes

Television both reflected and helped develop more liberal attitudes during the 1960s. Issues of sex, violence, politics, and religion, which had previously been banned or considered unsuitable for public broadcasting, were increasingly tackled as the decade progressed. The Wednesday Play (BBC, 1964-70) featured issues such as abortion, while Coronation Street (launched in 1960 by ITV) shocked older audiences with its realistic portrayal of failed marriages and illicit affairs. Kenneth Tynan became the first person to use a four-letter word on television in 1965, and once this barrier was broken, the floodgates opened.

Films remained subject to strict categorisation by the British Board of Film Censors throughout the 1960s. Nevertheless, the decade saw a gradual broadening of what was considered acceptable. Films of the mid-1960s grew more daring, with examples such as Darling (1965), Alfie (1966), and Georgy Girl (1966). By the end of the decade, screen violence and sex had become more acceptable and more explicit, as demonstrated by Midnight Cowboy and Mulberry Bush (1967). However, the reduction of censorship did not create an immediate wave of decadence, and it largely legitimised changes that had already taken place.

Opposition to permissiveness: the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church maintained a hostile position towards the contraceptive pill, arguing that it was contrary to God's law and therefore sinful. Not all Catholics agreed with this stance, and the Catholic MP Norman St John-Stevas wrote a critical essay entitled 'The Pope, the Pill and the People' in 1968, challenging the Church's position.

Permissive ideas were spread by the media, from 'teen' magazines through to a growing number of uncensored novels. Previously taboo subjects were discussed in books, on the radio, and on television. However, by the end of the decade, rates of sexually transmitted infections were rising, especially among the young, suggesting that increased openness came with public health consequences.

Key figure: Mary Whitehouse

Mary Whitehouse (1910-2001) was a Birmingham housewife who became a prominent moral campaigner concerned by what she perceived as declining standards. In 1963, she began her own 'moral crusade' against what she saw as a 'tide of immorality and indecency' in Britain. Her crusade was particularly directed at the Director-General of the BBC, Sir Hugh Greene.

On 5 May 1964, Whitehouse addressed a meeting attended by over 3,000 people in Birmingham Town Hall, declaring:

"The immediate object of this campaign is to restore the BBC to its position of respect and leadership in this country. The basic aim should show the work of playwrights which write of the world in which they live. If that is the world in which they live then I am truly sorry for them. But it is not our world and it is not the world of the vast majority of the people in this country and we don't want it in our homes. Violence is constantly portrayed as normal on the television screen it will help to create a violent society. I am not narrow-minded or old-fashioned. But I am square, and proud of it, if that means having a sense of values."

Whitehouse gained substantial public support when she launched her 'Clean Up TV' campaign in 1964. In 1965, she founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, which soon had 100,000 members. Her campaign continued until the 1980s. Despite her lobbying efforts, however, Whitehouse failed to have any substantial impact on the programmes shown on television.

The drug culture

The permissive society manifested itself in the spread of drug culture during the 1960s. Cocaine and heroin addiction became ten times more prevalent in the first half of the decade. By the end of the 1960s, the use of soft drugs was more commonplace. The 'hippy lifestyle', with its emphasis on 'free love' and 'flower power', promoted the drug culture. Even the Beatles turned to LSD.

The Dangerous Drugs Act 1967 made it unlawful to possess drugs such as cannabis and cocaine. The Wootton Report of 1968 suggested legalising soft drugs like cannabis, but this was rejected by the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, who was much less liberal than his predecessor, Roy Jenkins. Callaghan wanted 'to call a halt to the rising tide of permissiveness'. In 1970, the maximum sentence for supplying drugs was increased to 14 years' imprisonment.

The reality: limited actual change

The degree to which liberal permissiveness actually influenced attitudes and behaviour in the 1960s can be exaggerated. Surveys conducted by Michael Schofield on the sexual behaviour of young people (1965) and Geoffrey Gorer on Sex and Marriage in England Today (1969, published 1971) found that most young people were either virgins on marriage or married their first and only sexual partner. A mixture of ignorance and social constraints remained, and while liberal legislation opened the way to change, it represented only an inroad into the old religious and moral restraints.

Evidence of liberalisation	Evidence of continued restraint
Contraceptive pill and Family Planning Act 1967 gave women greater control over reproduction	Catholic Church and many others remained hostile to contraception
Divorce became easier, with rising divorce rates	Many women left economically vulnerable after divorce
Media discussed previously taboo subjects openly	Mary Whitehouse's campaign attracted 100,000 members
Drug culture spread among young people	Dangerous Drugs Act 1967 criminalised possession; maximum sentence increased to 14 years in 1970
Liberal legislation passed (covered in Chapter 6)	Surveys showed most young people remained sexually conservative

The extent of the permissive society was still limited by 1970. While some sections of society, particularly young people in urban areas, embraced more liberal attitudes, traditional values remained dominant for most of the population. The changes of the 1960s represented the beginning of a longer process of social transformation rather than a complete revolution in moral attitudes.