Equality & Rights Flashcards

Founder (1903) and leader of the WSPU, the Suffragettes, who led the militant campaign for votes for women.

False. The Suffragists (NUWSS, led by Millicent Fawcett) used peaceful methods like petitions and marches; only the Suffragettes (WSPU) used militancy.

Gave the vote to women over 30 who met a property qualification, and to all men over 21. Women's war work in the First World War had helped win support for it.

Made it illegal to pay women less than men for doing the same work (in force from 1975).

The TUC called it in support of the miners, whose owners wanted to cut their wages and increase their hours.

The TUC called it off after nine days (4–12 May 1926); the miners stayed out but were eventually forced back on lower wages and longer hours.

False. The strike failed: about half a million members left the unions in 1927 and union membership did not peak again until after the Second World War.

Made general and sympathetic strikes illegal, and meant union members had to opt in before their subscriptions could fund a political party such as Labour.

The Trade Union Act 1984, which required a secret ballot of members before a strike could be called.

The ship that brought hundreds of Caribbean migrants to Britain in 1948, marking the start of large-scale post-war immigration from the Commonwealth.

Made racial discrimination in public places illegal; it was strengthened by further Race Relations Acts in 1968 and 1976.

Unfair policing of the mainly black community, especially the 'Sus' law used to stop and search young black people. Recession, unemployment and poor housing also hit the community hard.

That racially prejudiced behaviour by police should be a sackable offence and that more black and Asian officers should be recruited; an independent Police Complaints Authority was later created.

Leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the Suffragists, from its founding in 1897. She kept the campaign to peaceful, constitutional methods and lived to see women win the vote on equal terms in 1928.

Setting fire to post boxes; others included arson attacks on empty buildings, smashing windows and chaining themselves to railings.

At first it force-fed them; then the 'Cat and Mouse' Act of 1913 let it release weak hunger strikers and re-arrest them once they recovered.

She ran onto the course at the Epsom Derby, was struck by the King's horse and died; her funeral became a huge Suffragette procession.

They stopped campaigning and supported the war effort.

Many soldiers and sailors had lost the vote because it depended on living at a fixed address, so Parliament had to rewrite the franchise; this gave the chance to include women as well.

Gave women the vote at 21, on the same terms as men.

The belief that women belonged in the home raising children while men dealt with public life and politics.

Nancy Astor, in 1919.

Women sewing machinists went on strike for three weeks over being paid less than men, halting car production; their protest helped bring about the Equal Pay Act 1970.

Made it illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sex in employment, education and training; the Equal Opportunities Commission was set up to enforce it.

Margaret Thatcher, in 1979.

It paid a subsidy to keep miners' wages up for nine months and appointed the Samuel Commission to look into the coal industry; its report in March 1926 backed wage cuts.

The government's newspaper during the General Strike of 1926, used, along with BBC radio, to put its case and urge strikers back to work.

It recruited volunteers, many of them students and middle-class men, to run trains and buses, and used troops to guard and move food from the docks.

The National Coal Board, backed by Margaret Thatcher's government, announced plans to close loss-making pits.

The militant leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) who led the miners' strike of 1984–85.

It built up large stocks of coal at power stations and converted some to use oil, so a strike could not quickly cause power cuts.

The miners went back to work in March 1985 without winning any concessions, and most remaining pits were closed over the following years.

In 1972 a seven-week strike won the miners a large pay rise. In 1974 their action forced a three-day week; Edward Heath called an election on 'Who governs Britain?' and lost.

They limited picketing to workers' own workplaces, restricted secondary (sympathy) action, and let unions be sued for damages over unlawful strikes.

It confirmed that people from the Empire and Commonwealth were British subjects, free to enter Britain and to settle and work there.

Britain was short of workers after the war, and employers such as the NHS and London Transport recruited staff from the Caribbean.

A 'colour bar': some landlords, employers and pubs refused Black and Asian people, so many were forced into overcrowded, overpriced housing.

Attacks by white gangs on Caribbean residents in Notting Hill, London, which led to days of violence and highlighted racism in Britain.

A campaign led by Paul Stephenson against the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews; the colour bar was dropped after four months.

It restricted immigration from the Commonwealth by introducing work vouchers, so many migrants already here brought their families over.

A speech by a Conservative MP warning of violence from immigration and calling for repatriation; he was sacked from the shadow cabinet but won much public support.

It made racial discrimination illegal in housing, employment and public services.

It banned indirect as well as direct discrimination and set up the Commission for Racial Equality to enforce the law.

A police operation in Brixton in April 1981 using mass stop-and-search; a stop on 11 April sparked the Brixton Riots.

After the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, it found the Metropolitan Police was 'institutionally racist', showing problems remained after Scarman.

PS: Germany

PS: America, 1920–1973

WDS: First World War

WDS: Inter-War Years

WDS: Cold War

TS: Health & the People

TS: Power & the People

BDS: Norman England

BDS: Elizabethan England

PS: America, 1840–1895

PS: Russia

WDS: Korea & Vietnam

WDS: Gulf & Afghanistan

TS: Migration, Empires & the People

BDS: Edward I

BDS: Restoration England