Family Functions: The role of Women's Liberation

The presentation presents Caroline Norton in Victorian Britain and the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s as two case studies around campaigns to change the conditions of marriage. The first concentrated on establishing laws that a married woman was a person who could have her own income and access to her children. The second was on overthrowing the social and personal conditions that feminists argued oppressed women and towards gender equality in the UK.

Family Functions can be used to look at the changing role of women in GCSE Religious Studies, Sociology and History.

Curriculum links:
• GCSE Religious Studies AQA 3.2.1 Theme A: Relationships and Families – Gender Equality; Religious Studies OCR J625 Relationships and Families / Challenges to religion – Secular attitudes / legal changes to marriage, divorce and gender roles within families in Britain.
• GCSE Sociology AQA 3.3 Families – Conjugal role relationships and feminist views
• GCSE History AQA BB Britain: Power and the people: Part 4. Equality and Rights – Women’s Rights.
These are general background notes on to assist with the powerpoint and PDF print of the 1975 Why be A Wife Campaign leaflet. They do not follow the presentation exactly but assist with giving a wider context so you can adapt / use the powerpoint as you want to.

This is resource was produced in tandem with our Spring 2020 exhibition Social Revolution: women’s liberation and gay liberation in the 1970s and 80s, marking 50 years since the beginnings of two significant social movements in the UK: the first women’s liberation conference in Oxford and the first UK meeting of the Gay Liberation Front at LSE.