Social Context / Legislation

• The Select Committee on Violence in Marriage: collects evidence and publishes its reports in 1974 and 1975:

“The Committee consulted relevant departments of central government, some local authorities, legal and law enforcement agencies as well as organisations providing services directly to battered women.” (Hanmer 1976).

Conferences

National

~ First Women’s Aid (WA) National Conference, London
Erin Pizzey and the Chiswick refuge are the basis of the emerging Women’s Aid movement. This conference organises the movement nationally:

“Erin Pizzey offered to employ a national co ordinator with money supplied by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS). The other groups agreed and Jo Sutton…took up the appointment.” (Hanmer 1976)

Workplace Issues

~ Equal Pay Conference, Colchester
~ (The) Fifth Demand Conference, London
~ Women in the Hotel Industry, London
~ Women’s Rights for Employed Women, London
~ Working Women’s Charter Campaign (WWCC) National Conference, Leeds

The Working Women’s Charter emerges from the London Trades Council to focus on the work women do outside of the home, on employment and equal opportunity. The Charter’s goals include; a minimum wage, equal education, extended nursery care, maternity leave, free contraception, family allowances and greater trade union participation by women.

“Many people at the conference felt that the document, despite its faults, offered an excellent opportunity to bring ideas current in the WLM into the Labour movement.” (Oxford Women and Socialism Group 1975)

Reproductive Rights

~ WACC National Conference, Nottingham

Other

~ Childcare, London

~ Libertarian Women’s Conference, Leeds

~ Need for a National Nursery Campaign, Nottingham

~ Structure and Organisation of the Women’s Movement, Coventry

~ Woman as a Consumer, York

~ Women and Education, Manchester

~ Women and Health Conference, Sheffield

~ Women’s Health Project, London

~ Women in History, Brighton

~ Women and Media Conference, Bristol

~ Women’s Movement: Problems, Perspective and Possibilities, London

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