In your own words outline how Hobsbawm (1995) and Sandbrook (2005) chart the increasing role of female consumers during the Post-War Golden Age.

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In the period between 1950 and 1973 the world economy changed dramatically, experiencing one of the largest growth rates in history, later to become known as the Golden Age. The consumer plays a key role in a countries economy and here we examine the increasing role of female consumers during the Post-War Golden Age. Perhaps one of the biggest changes to society during the Golden Age came with the rise in education. Many countries saw the number of people educated to university standard compared with those before the Second World War rising from only 0.1% to around 2.5% ‘most developed and educated countries with a total population of 150 millions contained no more than 150,000 or so university students between them’, ‘yet by the late 1980s students were counted in millions’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p.295) However these rising numbers of students were not only male but also female. Women began to enter higher education at a staggering rate and this gave them the qualifications needed to enter into their own profession (often a senior one). Women were now beginning to earn their own income thus giving them their own spending power, paternalism of the family was beginning to break down as the father was no longer the main bread winner and so saw the foundation for the increasing role of the female consumer. Another significant development during the Golden Age was the availability of electricity and by the mid 1950s most houses were enjoying its benefits ‘‘the joy of better light, of warmth and the power to make easier work of life’s chores’, as one advertisement put it.’ (Sandbrook, 2005, p.110). The installation of electricity was soon becoming the norm and so the market for electrical consumer goods such as hoovers, washing machines, fridge freezers and cooking appliances began to rise. These products made the household chores much easier and advertisement for these

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