Twentieth Century Britain and Women - Literature review Example

20th Century Britain and Women Order no: 200088 No: of pages: 12 Premium – 6530 During the Second World War, the culture and nature of female leisure took on a rather dangerous perspective as it ushered in an era of drinking in public houses which became a way of life for most of the women. Claire Langhamer gives us a first hand report as she critically examines the contemporary and retrospective pointers that guide us to understand how the wartime self- confidence of women led to the participation of women in pubs. She goes on to explain how the complexity of the war took a toll on gender hierarchies. The term ‘leisure’, was illegitimate to the mass of people as it was a term that was used for the ‘leisured’ class of people such as the ‘jobless rich’. It was mostly never used to denote the poor. Cunningham claims that it was not until the late nineteenth century that the term ‘leisure’ began to be employed more widely to refer to the non – work time of the mass of people. (Hugh Cunningham (1980) The discovery of leisure during the wartime held a lot of political and cultural significance in Britain’s democracy and society and reflected the instability faced by women at home and at work. Due to industrialization, the modern home was introduced to a score of labor saving devices that ‘liberated many full and part-time house-wives and mothers, providing them with more leisure’. (Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, ch. 3; Cutten, The Threat of Leisure, pp. 26 – 27) It was during this wartime period that women made frequent visits to public houses during their leisure time and consumed alcohol at an exceedingly alarming rate. The study of public house drinking by women posed a real challenge. An interview was carried out that involved twenty – three working class and middle class women where “pub visiting was rarely mentioned as a form of leisure activity”. (C. Langhamer, 2000) These women of both the working – class and lower middle – class stated that women who were young and unmarried hardly looked upon the pub as a place of leisure. On the other hand, the middle – class women had a harsh attitude towards female drinkers. They were of the opinion that if a female visited a pub, they were considered to be prostitutes. But besides these assertions there were definitely glimpses of women visiting pubs with their friends, husbands or even their boy friends. Therefore the attitude towards female drinking during the Second World War is a highly contested problem. In a study undertaken by Andrew Davies on Leisure, Gender and Poverty - Working – class Culture in Salford and Manchester, 1900 – 1939, he asserted that while most of the men in Salford drank, the women remained at home. ‘These sweeping judgments testify to the predominance of men in pubs, but closer questioning reveals that many women did drink’. (A. Davies, 1992) Female Trends in Pub Usage: During the 19th and 20th centuries, pub culture has become widespread among females. As Valerie Hey states, “”Public” houses have never really been public for women”. (Valerie Hey, 1986) Though it was argued that women did not make up the majority of pub goers, yet in a study undertaken in Bolton, The Pub and the People in 1943 clearly outlined the participation and experiences of women drinkers. (Mass Observation (1943), this edition. 1987) Looking closer at the problem, one would come across a variety of key trends that spread across urban areas with particular emphasis laid on age and social class. Age as a factor: According to evidence of a survey conducted on women drinkers, the young woman was only a not so frequent drinker. In a survey called The New Survey of London Life and Labour, it was estimated that only 8% of the drinkers in the capital came under the bracket of under twenty- five and out of them only 1.6 were women in this age group. Therefore the women in the under twenty-five age group accounted for only 7% of the total number. Right opposite in contrast to this were women drinkers who were aged over thirty – five who accounted for 74%. (Llewellyn Smith, pp. 253 – 254) Rowntree conducted a study in 1938 – 39 on the public houses in York and came up with 26% of female drinkers who visited ‘old fashioned working – class pubs. But where the bars were not frequented by the working classes, the percentage increased to 41.5%. (Rowntree, pp.352 – 353) In the contemporary world “young women drinkers” were referred to those women who were between the ages of sixteen to eighteen who were permitted to consume liquor with a meal and the “underage” or “juvenile” women who were not allowed to drink were the women aged between fourteen and sixteen. Therefore the category of “young women” might be defined as those aged between fourteen and twenty-five that is, above the minimum school leaving age and below the mean age at first marriage. (Mean age at 1921 and 1941) Particular or specific adolescent behavior can be attributed to the period when the adolescent is making a critical and transitional change from a child to a mature adult. This period marks the physical as well as the psychological changes that take place leaving the adolescent vulnerable to external diversions. According to psychologist Olive Wheeler, the development of an adolescent is ‘marked by four major adjustments – the finding of a vocation, the finding of a mate, the development of new social emotions preparing the individual to assume the responsibilities of citizenship, and the discovery of a working philosophy of life’. (Olive A. Wheeler, 1943) Many historians are of the opinion that ‘masculinism of the public house, arguing that the women often lacked the requisite resources of time and money and the justificatory sense of deserved personal leisure entitlement exhibited by male drinkers’ (Claire Langhamer, p. 154) It was also found by Mass Observation that ‘the proportion of young people in pubs tends to go up sharply’ during the holiday season and another observation by them was that some ‘pubs did perform a courtship function which stemmed from their proximity to public dance halls’. (Mass Observation, p. 136, 137, 138) Besides pub drinking, other leisure forms such as marital as well as pre- marital were quite prevalent…..’seen in a pre- marital preference for pursuing courtship activity through dancing, cinema going and street- based rituals such as the monkey run’. (Claire Langhamer, pp. 113 – 132) Gender Roles and Leisure forms: During the war women’s experience of leisure was a subject that was neglected to a great extent and hence was considerably left in the dark where research was concerned. According to Penny Summerfield’s observation, ‘Feminist work on the Second World War has established that 1939 – 45 was a period when assumptions about and perceptions of gender roles and boundaries were profoundly disturbed’. (P. Summerfield, 1996) In 1943, Mass Observation stated that, “War – jobs are not by any means the only places in which women have become entrenched during the war. They have not only taken over men’s activities in working hours, but to a very considerable extent in leisure hours too. Perhaps one of the most significant changes is the extent to which they have entered during the war into the life of public houses”. (M.O.A: File Report, March, 1943) In order to attract the female population, the brewers made every effort to improve the ambience in public pubs. They designed attractive and respectable lounges in high class city centers or public pubs in hotels or suburban inns. ‘Modernization’ was viewed as essential in attracting and keeping female patrons whilst female patrons were themselves viewed as an important contribution to the modernization of he trade’. (Penny Tinkler, 2001). In a 1940 wartime report on Britain, the Ministry of Information Intelligence reported that ‘the growing habit of young women to frequent the more respectable or better- class bars’ has significantly increased. It was observed that women who worked in the Forces as well as wage earners in the young female category who had extra money to spend made up a good portion of the pub frequenting population which included women in the Auxillary Territorial Service (ATS), housewives, nurses, shop – assistants and even bus- workers. One of the reasons for this was because the women who worked during the war were considered as the archetypal new female drinkers and secondly working in the services automatically promoted certain forms of leisure among the female population. Another good reason for this would be that the work atmosphere is so integrated that men and women have to spend a lot of time working alongside each other and it was the most natural thing for them to also spend their leisure hours with them. Another reason given for the rise in female alcohol consumption is attributed to social dislocation. The state considered young women workers as ‘mobile’ while women who were between the ages of twenty- five to thirty who had domestic responsibilities were considered as ‘non- mobile’. Hence these women who did not have much of the influence of family and local community, found their own pastimes and ways to spend their leisure hours. Their salaries were high and hence they had more spending power than most women in other jobs. Pubs were also fertile grounds for building friendship and socializing. It provided a ground for young girls to enter into courtship and seek out a good husband whom they could marry. As Pearl Jephcott’s observation in 1945 on girls aged seventeen to twenty- one states, ‘Ain’t it nice in here!” is the obvious reaction of any girl with a spark of gaiety as she goes into a brightly lighted, warm and crowded bar with a piano playing, a darts match in progress and people laughing and joking and socially inclined. (Pearl Jephcott, 1948) During the war, the pub served as a venue for courtship and females were careful in choosing the right venue in order to get a husband of high social standing. The women who visited pubs were very well aware of the different types of company they would encounter in different pubs or dance- halls. Therefore they visited those pubs where they could find a soul mate of a desired social status. While most are of the opinion that since women work on par with men, they are also entitled to the same leisure and pleasures that men make use of. Most of the young men and women feel that it is narrow- mindedness and old- fashioned prudery or even down right disgusting when those that oppose such behavior air their opinions and attack wartime gender roles. All said and done pubs are a danger ground especially for the juvenile and the innocent who are given drinks that are quite strong and they become victims of seduction and sexual molestation. Without doubt pubs are a breeding ground for infidelity and carelessness and definitely endangered the female drinker as she is exposed to different kinds of men who may take undue advantage of them. The Working Class: The pre – war era has it that the women pub goers were between the ages of forty one and fifty, but times have changed now as a study in Bolton tells us that ‘the working -class women constituted just over one – third of the public house clientele, with two- thirds of these women aged under forty years of age’. (M.O.A: TC85 ‘Drinking Habits’. Box 4, ‘Pub counts, 1947 – 48’) When examining other forms of leisure activities of women, it was found that societal constraints held restrictions on activities such as swimming or entering the sports arena. Sheila Fletcher confirms that ‘the image of the ‘New Woman’ indulging in sport, encapsulated women’s desire for entry to areas of male exclusivity’.(Sheila Fletcher, 1985) In the same way, Kathleen McCrone on speaking of competitive sports ‘believes that at the turn of the century, such women can be seen as a beacon of feminist hope’. (Kathleen McCrone1988). The culture of women swimming in public had a great influence on filmmakers from Hollywood and other places and soon this culture enamored the glitterati who featured in most of their films. Soon this culture became morally acceptable as long as it was within limits of propriety and modesty. Dyhouse’s research into girls clubs in late Victorian and Edwardian England presents telling evidence of middle – class efforts to regulate the sexuality and sexual conduct of working –class young women. These clubs served to lift up the domestic standard while providing protection as well as guidance to young girls who were not in the protection and regulation of their homes. The clubs tended to curb the “precocious independence” that girls were feared to acquire when they entered the labor market. (C. Dyhouse, 1981) In recent studies undertaken by Langhamer and Roberts, they suggested that, ‘young working –class women were also prominent consumers of new forms of leisure, including dance halls, cinemas and magazines’. (S. Alexander, London, 1995) The NYC and Leisure: The NYC was a voluntary Youth Organization who strived hard to bring stability to the vulnerable youth and who possessed three interrelated and important objectives – Primarily, the NYC used leisure to build social and physical development among young people and hence help them compensate this for the lack of formal schooling. Secondly, Leisure was used as a means to build good health and well being of the youth especially of those unemployed and those working away from home. Thirdly and most importantly, leisure was looked upon as a means of supervising young people and diverting their energy into more constructive channels, thereby keeping them off the streets and out of danger. The NYC utilized leisure to curb delinquency and prevent sexual promiscuity especially in young girls. Speaking on the urgent problem of how to keep young girls off the streets, the General Secretary of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Miss Curwen states, “The problem on the girls’ side is in some respects more acute than that of boys’ owing to the fact that 16 and 17 year old girls and even younger, walk out with soldiers”. (PRO ED 136/173, NYC Paper No.13, 23rd October, 1939, p. 1.) Conclusion: The Second World War not only encouraged the women to drink publicly in pubs but it also served as a catalyst in promoting the problem from the background into the foreground. This became a problem for concern to psychologists, educationists, academicians and also youth workers who did their best to draw attention to the ongoing danger faced by women. Women’s leisure gathered a lot of public attention from the media and suggestions for appropriate intervention in these areas. Regards adolescent leisure which proved detrimental to the youth steps to curb juvenile drinking and intervention to channelize the energies of the youth in the proper direction using the guidance of education was an important matter to be considered. The introduction of girl clubs and other activities helped to keep young girls off the streets and away from danger. It was also committed to reconstructing and stabilizing family life in post-war Britain. Youth Welfare Organizations and Youth leaders wee instrumental in utilizing leisure to shape and channelize the energies of young women in a more sensible form that benefited both the family as well as society by carrying out voluntary services to the community at large. References: A. Davies (1992) Leisure, Gender and Poverty. Working – class Culture in Salford and Manchester, 1900-1939, p. 63 (Buckingham: Open University Press) Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, ch. 3; Cutten, The Threat of Leisure, pp. 26 – 27. Claire Langhamer (2000) Women’s Leisure in England, 1920 – 1960, pp. 192 – 201 (Manchester: Manchester University Press) Claire Langhamer, Women’s Leisure in England, p. 154. Claire Langhamer, On Courtship, Women’s Leisure in England, pp. 113 – 132) C. Dyhouse, (1981) Girls Growing up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England. pp. 104 – 114 (Oxford: Blackwell). Hugh Cunningham (1980) Leisure in the Industrial Revolution c. 1780 – 1880, pp. 12 – 13 (London: Croom Helm) Kathleen McCrone (1988) Sport and Physical Emancipation of Women, p. 277 (London: Routledge) Llewellyn Smith, The New Survey of London Life and Labour, pp. 253 – 254. (The counts were made on Friday and Saturday nights) Mass Observation (1943, this edition 1987) The Pub and the People (London: The Cresset Library) Mass Observation, The Pub and the People, p. 136, 137, 138) M.O.A: File Report (hereafter FR) 1611 (cont.) ‘Women in Public Houses’, March, 1943, p. 1. M.O.A: TC85 ‘Drinking Habits’. Box 4, ‘Pub counts, 1947 – 48’) Olive A. Wheeler (1943) The Service of Youth, Journal of Educational Psychology, XIII, p. 70. Pearl Jephcott (1948) Rising Twenty. P. 148 (London: Faber & Faber). Jephcott studied the lives of 103 girls aged between seventeen and twenty- one in three areas of England in March 1945. Penny Tinkler, (2001) Rebellion, Modernity and Romance. Women’s Studies International Forum, 24, p. 138. PRO ED 136/173, NYC Paper No.13, 23rd October, 1939, p. 1.) Rowntree, Poverty and Progress, pp. 352 – 353) In 1921, the Mean age at first marriage stood at 25.5, in 1941 it stood at 24.6 S. Alexander, ‘Becoming a woman in London in the 1920’s and the 1930’s’. in S. Alexander, ed., Becoming a woman and other essays in the nineteenth and twentieth century feminist history (London, 1994) Langhamer, Women’s Leisure; E. Roberts, A Woman’s Place: an oral history of working – class women, 1890 – 1940 (Oxford, 1984) pp. 39 – 80. Sheila Fletcher (1985) The Making and Breaking of a Female Tradition: Women’s Physical Education in England, 1880 – 1980, British Journal of Sports History, 2, p. 29. P. Summerfield, (1996) Discourses of Women and Work in the Second World War, in C. Gledhill & G. Swanson (Eds.) Nationalising Femininity, Culture, Sexuality and British Cinema in the Second World War. p. 35 (Manchester: Manchester University Press) Valerie Hey (1986) Patriarchy and Pub Culture, p. 58 (London: Tavistock) Read More