Summary
Summary History: women in 1970's
- Course
- History
- Institution
- 12th Grade
Overview of the woman's roles in the 1970's.
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1970sA CENTURY OF WOMEN - 1970s
Introduction
Across Britain, America, France and other parts of Europe, including the Republic of Ireland, the
second wave of feminism was underway, but in the North, progress was much slower. However, given
the combination of sharp political divisions, the depressed socio-economic conditions and the
powerful conservative influence of the dominant churches, it is not surprising that women in
Northern Ireland remained in a relative backwater of feminism. It was near the mid-70s before
women started to organise as women and feminist ideas started to permeate. In 1975, International
Women’s Year was declared by the United Nations and International Women’s Day was resurrected in
Belfast. The Equal Pay Act came into force in 1975 and the Sex Discriminations Order (NI) in 1976,
bringing women’s rights more into focus.
The lack of civil rights, along with the presence of the British army and loyalist and republican
paramilitary organisations, made it difficult to work on women’s issues. In a situation where people
were interned without trial, made homeless through intimidation and killed in shootings and
bombings, fighting for women’s rights was an uphill struggle.
In Northern Ireland, and Ireland generally, anti-war protesters welcomed the ending of the war in
Vietnam in 1975, but apartheid continued in South Africa and demonstrations were held in the North
of Ireland when 700 black children in the Soweto Township were shot in 1976. In 1975, in Britain,
, It was in the 1970s that a number of women started to organise specifically to fight on the issues that
affected them as women; a considerable number of these were already involved in the trade union and
civil rights movement, as well as other politics. The continuing attempts to win people to campaign
for a peaceful solution, while also addressing issues of injustice, gave rise to a complex and
challenging situation. Women’s organisations had to highlight issues of sexism, sex discrimination
and women’s rights, in addition to opposing the escalation of violence and sectarianism. However,
women were not homogenous and adopted a wide range of political positions and attitudes to the
ongoing conflict.
From the 1970s onwards, violence became more intense and the pacifism of the civil rights
movement, which included many women, lost ground in the face of paramilitary activism and the
introduction of repressive legislation, like internment without trial and the Emergency Provisions
Act, by the state. Direct Rule from Westminster had been introduced in 1971, and following the brief
interlude of a power-sharing Executive in 1974, was re-imposed that year leaving a political vacuum.
The effect on women’s lives depended on their lived experience; with Republican areas of Belfast,
Newry and Derry particularly targeted as ‘terrorist communities’ by the army and many working-class
Protestant areas seeing the rise of loyalist paramilitaries. A case in point was the Falls Road Curfew in
July 1970, when the British army sealed off the area for three days in the search for weapons. Four
civilians were killed by the army; at least 78 civilians and eighteen soldiers were wounded and 337
people were arrested. The curfew was broken when an estimated 3,000 women from outside the area
marched to the British army positions with food and other groceries to supply the women in the
Lower Falls.
On the 9th of August 1971, 342 men (almost all Catholics) were interned without trial in the Crumlin
Road Prison, Maidstone Prison ship and Long Kesh detention centre (later to be re-named the HMP
Maze Prison). Women’s lives, initially in Nationalist/Republican areas, changed and they were pushed
to the forefront of community action. These developments acted as a galvanising factor, driving
women into political action to protect their families, communities and in defence of their male
relatives. A number of Republican women were interned in 1973, whilst women from Loyalist areas
also came out in protest when their male relatives were interned in 1974.
For some women, this was the first time that they had to act as head of households and claim benefits
on behalf of their families (married women living with their husbands were not allowed to claim by
law). Women formed street committees, sold political papers, spoke on public platforms, sat down in
front of Saracen armoured cars and blocked streets. They went on demonstrations and gained both
confidence and a sense of agency. It was a process which politicised them. Women took the lead in the
Rent and Rates Strike introduced in opposition to internment without trial and it is estimated that
30,000 households were on strike at the height of the campaign. It was women who bore the brunt of
the impact of the Payment for Debt Act 1971 which was enacted to counter the strike. This legislation
allowed for deductions to be taken from wages and state benefits for non-payment of household bills.
The violence escalated following events such as Bloody Sunday in Derry, when 28 innocent men were
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