The Affluent Sixties

Britain – Changes in Family Life and the Quest for Personal Freedoms, 1960-79

In this course, Ms Amy Longmuir (University of Reading) explores changes in family life and the quest for personal freedoms from 1960-79. In the first lecture, we think about the ‘affluent sixties’. In the second lecture, we think about the Woman’s Liberation Movement in the context of personal choices and the family. In the third lecture, we revisit the Women’s Liberation Movement, but in the context of women and work. Next, we think about gay liberation. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about Margaret Thatcher’s statement that ‘there is no such thing as society’.

The Affluent Sixties

In this lecture, we think about the affluent sixties, focusing in particular on: (i) Harold Macmillan’s “never had it so good” speech in 1957; (ii) Harold Wilson’s “white heat” of technology speech in 1963, further serving to predict a prosperous 1960s for Britain; (iii) the continued small percentage of people cohabiting outside of marriage throughout the 1960s, but alongside an increase in births outside of marriage: (iv) the explosion of new music culture during the 1960s which permeated into the United States, but was seen by some as unwholesome and a sign of unwelcome societal change; (v) musical events and cultural movements throughout the 1960s which promoted alternative lifestyles, peace, and nuclear disarmament; (vi) the introduction of the contraceptive pill to the UK in 1961, which was initially only available to married women; (vii) the National Health Service (Family Planning) Act of 1967, which gave women access to the contraceptive pill through the NHS in England and Wales, regardless of their marital status; (viii) the approval of this in Scotland in 1968 and in Northern Ireland in 1972; (ix) the change in the inevitability of children as part of a family after the availability of the contraceptive pill.