Lancashire nostalgia in 1971: Women's Lib, motorway doomwatch and equal pay

Here's a look at some of the stories that were making the headlines back in 1971:
Women's Lib protestersWomen's Lib protesters
Women's Lib protesters

Beware ‘nagging women’ image

Women’s Liberationalists were denounced as “rampant feminists” and “nagging women with anti-male attitudes” by two officials of the Business and Professional Women’s Federation.

Mrs Ethel Garstang, vice-president of the Preston club, was supported in her condemnation of the movement by the Federation’s North West vice-president, Mrs Mabel Corlett.

Picturesque Weeton is under threat from the proposed M6 link road from Preston to BlackpoolPicturesque Weeton is under threat from the proposed M6 link road from Preston to Blackpool
Picturesque Weeton is under threat from the proposed M6 link road from Preston to Blackpool
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Speaking at the club’s 28th annual dinner at Barton Grange, Mrs Garstang said that the position of women in society had been spotlighted during the past year. But that the Women’s Lib had brought it into disrepute.

“We do not want to be labelled as nagging women with anti-male attitudes,” she said.

The aim of B and P was to be a stabilising force.

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Look back at a selection of pictures from 1971 here

Motorway doomwatch is under way

Across the Fylde from Preston to Blackpool farmers and villagers are keeping their own special doomwatch.

Whitehall is expected to announce the route the multi-million pound Broughton-Blackpool link road will take from the M6. In the countryside, however, many people suspect that they already know what line the mini-motorway will follow.

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All the local authorities involved have been shown the plans and have been asked by the Ministry of Transport to treat them as “most confidential”.

Worst suspicions among people “not in the know” are being aroused in the picture postcard village of Weeton, near Blackpool.

Residents now fear that the route will separate their village from its church and school.

Several miles nearer Preston, the inhabitants of Wharles and Treales, outside Kirkham, expect the “spur” to pass within a stone’s throw of their village church. But except for a rustle of protest by people not wanting to see the rural outlook from their homes spoiled, the country dwellers are accepting that this M6 link with Blackpool is inevitable and necessary.

Employers get guide to the Equal Pay Act

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Some 1,400 firms in the Preston area and 250 in Chorley have been sent copies of a booklet giving a guide to the Equal Pay Act, 1970, which comes into force on December 29, 1975.

The booklet has been distributed by the Department of Employment and Productivity and Mr Ford, manager at Preston, commented: “I should think every employer in the exchange area with five workers or more will now have a copy. There are reserve supplies available on application.

“Employers should start planning for it pretty quickly, although it does not start til 1975.”

Under the Act an individual woman will have a right to equal treatment with a man doing the same or broadly similar work in the same or an associated establishment. A woman who does different work to a man, which has been rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme will also have a right to equal treatment.

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A women whose employer disputes her claim to equal treatment may refer the case to an industrial tribunal and employers will have an equal right to refer to the tribunal.

Certain benefits, however, may make payments unequal.