Baby Why Do You Treat Me This Way? The Evolving Role of Women, From Pub Rock to Punk (UK, 1970s)

Pub rock in the UK was notable for its near complete absence of women. Drawing on first-hand interviews with singer-songwriter Helen Reddington and artist and founding member of The Moodies, Anne Bean, this chapter shows that rather than simply being symptomatic of the 1970s, pub rock contrasted with contemporaneous, more radical/progressive art and music scenes, where women had a more prominent role. The output of bands such as Dr Feelgood and Brinsley Schwartz is explored in the context of gender, identifying a progression from the blues rock scenes that preceded pub rock, while also interrogating the extent to which crossover artists such as Ian Dury brought chauvinistic attitudes from pub rock into their punk incarnations. Contrarily, the chapter problematises a predominant narrative that punk was unambiguously emancipatory for women, looking at the output of bands including The Stranglers and Johnny Moped. Testimony from figures such as Chrissie Hynde and Chiswick Records co-founder Roger Armstrong are used to explore the extent to which misogyny persisted in male dominated punk spaces. The chapter ultimately concludes that punk provided a continuum with the exploratory art and music spaces of the early 1970s, while providing space for more explicitly feminist strands to emerge through post-punk.