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War & Decline

Post War Living & The Welfare State

Post War Living & The Welfare State

In the post-war recovery period of the 1950's huge changes began taking place in south west Scotland as in the rest of the UK. Social and political changes, such as the creation of the welfare state (1947) led to individual freedoms that had hitherto, never been experienced before. Also the Race Relations Act of 1966, Divorce Reform Act of 1969 and the Equal Pay Act of 1970, offered people massive liberation from the restraints of the past and the chance of a comfortable life that their parents had never known. People were healthier, in a lot of cases richer, better educated and had more free time largely due to modern energy saving devices in the home. Women were one of the main groups to benefit, the pill meant that they could choose whether to have a family or not, and if so, the size of their family and at what point in their life they wanted children. It meant that they could now work on a career, rather than being coconsigned to becoming mothers, dependant on their husbands.

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