1950s Women's Rights in England: A Taste of Honey Ally Schrieber College

Women’s rights movements in the 1950s of England were not entirely strong. In a speech in regards to women’s rights Wiley Rutridge, Justice of the Supreme Court in 1948, states “there still [remains] large areas in which unjustifiable discrimination is practiced on [a] wide-spread scale” despite ay progress (1948). Women were expected to marry, have children, and uphold the white-picket fence family ideal. The 1950s were considered “the quiet patch when women returned to the home and domestic duty” from the workforce during World War II (Tinkler, Spencer, & Langhamer 2016). The nuclear family proposal was just as popular in England as in the United States. However, women were advancing in the workforce, and the “implication of shifting work patterns for women, families and occupational hierarchies was much discussed” (Langhamer 2017).

As gender roles in the workforce shifted, so did ideas about sexuality. Women were educated on the risks of intercourse, which increased economic concerns of those in the middle class. Both sexuality and workplace gender ideals took precedence in the lives of women in the 1950s of England. Societal stereotypes, such as sexually active women being seen in a negative light and the workforce as...