A People's History of Women's Rights in 20th-century Britain

Are you ready to start this installment of A People's History, in which your job is to predict what ordinary people living in Britain during the last century thought about gender and women's rights?

• Yes
• No

In this quiz, you'll be asked to guess how ordinary people answered questions in opinion polls and surveys conducted from the 1930s to the 1990s by organisations like Gallup and NOP. This isn't the usual kind of quiz which tests what you already know - it's designed to leave you knowing more at the end than you knew at the beginning. Don't worry if you find it difficult to predict the answers at the start. After all, they say that 'the past is a foreign country' in which people thought and acted then in surprising, sometimes disturbing, ways from our perspective. Before we begin, how much background knowledge do you have of public attitudes to gender and women's rights in twentieth-century Britain prior to taking this quiz?

• None
• Not much
• Some
• Plenty
• Masses

The first polling question about women's rights concerned the marriage bar, which forced women in many sectors of employment to give up their jobs upon marrying. How do you think people answered the question 'Do you favour trained women such as teachers and doctors giving up their jobs when they marry?' when polled in 1939?

• A majority agreed
• A majority disagreed
• There was no consensus on the issue

Answer explanation

The public was divided on this issue, with 48% in favour of a marriage bar for skilled women workers and 46% opposed. A larger proportion (56%) supported a marriage bar for unskilled women workers.

Gallup asked a different sort of question about women doctors in 1943, when it asked civilians whether they would prefer to be treated by a male or female doctor with equivalent training. What did the majority prefer?

• A male doctor
• A female doctor
• No preference

Answer explanation

58% expressed a preference for a male doctor. 18% preferred a woman while 24% said they had no preference.

Men and women's roles changed dramatically on the outbreak of war in September 1939. In November 1941, Gallup asked civilians if women should be allowed to fight. Did most of them agree or disagree?

• A majority agreed
• A majority disagreed
• There was no consensus on the issue

Answer explanation

65% of civilians disapproved of the idea of women becoming combatants, with 25% approving of the idea.

Although women were not recruited to the fighting forces, they were allowed to join serve in non-combat roles in organisations such as the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service). What did civilians say when asked in January 1944 whether or not these auxiliary services should be continued after the war?

• A majority wished them to continue in peacetime
• A majority wished them to be disbanded in peacetime

Answer explanation

51% of civilians favoured disbanding women's auxiliary services at the end of the war, compared to 34% who wished to see them continue. Women were more closely divided on the issue.

Conscription was imposed on all men between 18 and 41 in 1939 and the upper age limit was raised to 51 in December 1941. That same month, civilians were asked whether women aged 50 or younger should be conscripted to do warwork. How do you think they responded?

• A majority agreed
• A majority disagreed
• There was no consensus on the issue

Answer explanation

Civilians were split on the issue, with 46% in favour of national service for women up to 50 and 44% opposed.

1941 saw the first question about equal pay for men and women who performed work of equivalent value. This did not become law until 1970. When was the first poll which registered majority support for equal pay?

• 1940s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s

Answer explanation

The principle of equal pay was supported by a majority of people in every poll from 1942 onwards, when 68% of civilians were in favour and 27% were opposed.

Some questions about women's behaviour provoked a surprising degree of controversy in the 1940s and 1950s. Which of the following issues divided opinion in this period?

• Women appearing in public in trousers
• Women drinking in bars and restaurants
• Girls paying for part of a date
• All of these issues

Answer explanation

Civilians in 1940 were split down the middle over whether they minded women appearing in public in trousers. 55% of people in 1948 had no objections to women drinking in bars or restaurants, but 40% expressed reservations. 44% in 1951 thought that a girl should contribute something when on a date, while 43% thought that the boy should pay for everything.

Polling organisations asked many questions about family life in the 1950s. In 1952, what was the most common answer to the question 'Who do you think has the main say in your family?'

• The husband/father
• The wife/mother
• No-one in particular; 50-50

Answer explanation

38% said the husband or father had the main say. 28% said that men and women had an equal say in the family, whereas 21% said the wife or mother had the main say.