Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a substantial change in sexual morality and sexual behavior throughout the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The trigger for the revolution was the development of the birth control pill in 1960, which gave women access to easy and reliable contraception.

The sexual revolution in the UK

In the UK the new generation growing up after the Second World War, had grown tired of the rationing and austerity of the 1940s and 1950s and the Victorian values of their elders. And so the 1960s were a time of rebellion against the drab fashions and social mores of the previous generation.

Related Topics:
UK - Second World War - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s

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The first inkling of the changing attitudes came in 1960, when the government of the day tried unsuccessfully to prosecute Penguin Books for obscenity, for publishing the D.H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterley's Lover which had been banned since the 1920s, for its racy (for the time) content.

Related Topics:
1960 - Penguin Books - D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover - 1920s

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As evidence of how old fashioned the attitudes of the establishment were, the prosecution council Mervyn Griffith-Jones famously stood up in front of the jury in his closing statement and asked "Is it a book you would wish your wife or servants to read".

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When the case collapsed, the novel went on to become a best seller, selling 2 million copies. The Pill became available on the National Health Service in the 1960s, first restricted to married women, but late in the decade its availability was extended to all women.

Related Topics:
National Health Service - 1960s

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