Lecture 10: Women – Work, Politics and the Family

Question 1

Ideologies:

Answer 1

• Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
• John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869)
• Dominant ideology at beginning of century was ideology of separate spheres

Question 2

Ideology of separate spheres:

Answer 2

• Public sphere of work and politics = Men
• Private sphere of home = women
• Although dominant ideology, doesn’t mean it was evident everywhere as was only an ideal
• Ideology of separate spheres still popularised in 20th C

Question 3

Women’s history:

Answer 3

• Popular discipline from 1970s onwards
• Replaced later by gender history
• Feminist history dominated by those that took part in the feminist movement

Question 4

What is feminism?

Answer 4

• First wave feminism – belongs to first part of century – particular emphasis on the vote
• Second Wave feminists – concerned about women’s experience in society
• British feminism influenced by movements elsewhere in the world such as Germaine Greer
• Era of initiatives such as contraception, lots of legislation
• Third Wave – tended to be embracing of gender differences, also brought colour and race into account (previous feminist waves were dominated by white women)
• Social movements often interlinked, lots of women involved in CND
• Complex ideas and no straightforward way of characterising feminism

Question 5

First Wave Feminism:

Answer 5

• First wave feminism – belongs to first part of century – particular emphasis on the vote

Question 6

Second Wave Feminism:

Answer 6

• Second Wave feminists – concerned about women’s experience in society
• British feminism influenced by movements elsewhere in the world such as Germaine Greer
• Era of initiatives such as contraception, lots of legislation

Question 7

Third Wave Feminism:

Answer 7

• Third Wave – tended to be embracing of gender differences, also brought colour and race into account (previous feminist waves were dominated by white women)
• Social movements often interlinked, lots of women involved in CND
• Complex ideas and no straightforward way of characterising feminism

Question 8

Women and the Family:

Answer 8

• Family seen as institution most central to women’s experience throughout the 20th C
• Key area in which gender roles and expectations were defined
• Early part of century – women’s lives dominated by childbirth and childcare
• Changes to fertility had huge effects on women’s lives
• Families at the end of the century smaller than at the beginning
• Decline from beginning of century to end of the century for live births
• Fall in the birth-rate combined with increased life expectancy meant that much smaller proportion of women’s lives spent with young children or pregnant by the end of the century
• Reduction in birth-rate due to greater birth control – changing women’s lives
• Interwar years – birth control began to be more acceptable
• Marie Stropes – talks about need for birth control - clinic only really affected middle class
• Marie Stropes – Mother England – working class women appealed to her for advise on safe contraception methods
• 60s and 70s saw real change regarding contraception for working class women
• Legalisation of abortion in 1987 – helped working class women
• Sexuality – issues of sexuality and gender roles within the family became important to second wave feminism
• Radical feminism challenged institution of the family altogether – argue homosexuality and monogamy to women
• Institution of marriage changed over century
• Paid employment and domestic work more evenly shared over the century
• Wilmott and Young – family life involved male and females
• Nature of domestic work – 1948 86% of householders owned an iron
• Increasing availability of domestic work/appliances
• In several ways life did get better for women
• Marital rape 1990 – only then acknowledged by English courts

Question 9

Women and Politics:

Answer 9

• Politics where best fits model of progress for women
• Key date: 1918 – when women over 30, who were married to rate payers or themselves rate payers received right to vote in elections
• Suffragettes got the headlines such as the Pankhurst’s
• NUWSS made great impression for change – more moderate suffragists made more of an impact and impression
• 1918 reform only applied to national elections – ability to vote in local elections was less significant issues than that of national policy
• 1928 – women over 21 enfranchised (equal terms to men)
• Right to vote determined by marital position – political position in society determined by gender
• Interwar years parties had to start target female constituents – Conservatives adapted well to targeting women’s concerns
• Women getting the vote didn’t necessarily mean political power
• Needed women MPs to ensure change – lobbying of female MPs essential
• Lady Astor – first female MP to take seat in House of Commons in 1919
• Margaret Bondfield – first female cabinet minister in 1929
• Margaret Thatcher – first female leader pf main 3 parties – also first female PM elected in 1979
• These women were exceptions
• Most dramatic influx into commons = end of the century – 101 female labour MPs entered Parliament after 1997 election – but named by Press as Blair’s Babes
• Female politicians often continued to be defined by gender

Question 10

Women and Work:

Answer 10

• Model of breadwinner family established since 19th C
• Had not always been this model – 75% of married women worked in 1851 yet only 10% by 1911 – the industrial revolution and establishment of the factory was key to this decline
• Common at beginning of century for working class women to work before they were married
• Increase in number of married women working after WW2
• Great phenomenon in number of married women working
• 1961 = first year in which more married women worked than single women
• Concept of working mother also started from the 1950s
• Not just due to changes in attitudes but also economic changes – after WWII growth of service sector
• Expansion of welfare state - education and NHS also gave women more opportunity to work
• Expansion in employment and educational opportunities for middle-class women
• Marriage bars – only repealed after WWII
• Late 1920s, 28% university students female – little change until the late 1950s
• Throughout century more likely to be in less skilled jobs than men, less promotion prospects
• Women less likely to be unionised
• Legislation processed eventually such as Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 yet pay differentials still remained
• Concept of the ‘glass ceiling’ – women could theoretically see the top but would never get there as there was an invisible barrier
• Women more likely to work part time
• Attitudes could be slow to change
• Interwar years easy target for unemployment cuts – Anomalies Act 1931
• Beveridge – attitude of the housewife should not be the same as a single woman

Question 11

Conclusion:

Answer 11

• Social experiences depended on class and their age
• Middle class women befitted most
• Young women benefited from greater sexual freedom
• Remained very gendered