The Housewife and the Modern: The Home and Appearance in Women's Magazines, 1954

259 Pages·2011·13.21 MB·English

by  Rachel Ritchie

THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE MODERN: THE HOME AND APPEARANCE IN
WOMEN’S MAGAZINES, 1954 – 1969

A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
in the Faculty of Humanities

2010

RACHEL RITCHIE

SCHOOL OF ARTS, HISTORIES AND CULTURES
Contents

Page number

Introduction 10

Chapter One 33
H&C and Outlook:
Women’s Magazines and Organizational Periodicals

Chapter Two 65
The Housewife as Expert?
Housing and Consumer Education in H&C and Outlook

Chapter Three 91
Domestic Consumption and Understandings of the Modern Home

Chapter Four 122
The Role of Interior Design and Décor in the Modern Home

Chapter Five 154
Dressing the Modern Woman:
The Importance of Fashion to Constructions of the Modern

Chapter Six 189
Health and Beauty in Making the Modern Body

Conclusion 221

Bibliography 236

Final word count: 85,495
2
List of Tables

Page number

1.1 Comparison of the key features 38

2.1 Tenure in England and Wales, 1945-1983 72

3.1 Ownership of domestic goods 99

5.1 Use of marital titles in readers’ letters 182

3
List of Images

Page number

1.1 Bloom’s column 44

1.2 H&C cover 48

1.3 Outlook cover 57

1.4 ‘Labour’s Plans for the New Britain’ 61

3.1 1954 Gas Council advertisement 110

3.2 1957 Gas Council advertisement 111

4.1 A rare example of ‘togetherness’ in H&C and Outlook 132

4.2 One advertiser’s interpretation of ‘contemporary style’ 144

4.3 CWS ‘Floral bowl’ advertisement 147

5.1 Gor-ray advertisement highlighting a variety of skirt styles 158

5.2 Woman’s ‘Navy Plus’ feature 169

5.3 An Outlook article targeting younger readers and using younger models 169

5.4 A 1960s H&C fashion feature 171

5.5 Another example of a 1960s H&C fashion feature 172

6.1 Woman / Max Factor reader offer 193

6.2 A black and white cosmetics advertisement 194

6.3 A 1950s H&C beauty article 196

6.4 A 1960s H&C beauty article 197

6.5 Illustration from ‘The Green Beret’ depicting Emmy before her makeover 202

6.6 Illustration from ‘The Green Beret’ depicting Emmy during her makeover 202

6.7 Illustration from ‘The Green Beret’ depicting Emmy after her makeover 202

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Abstract
The University of Manchester
Candidate’s name: Rachel Ritchie
Degree title: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Thesis title: The housewife and the modern: the home and appearance in women’s
magazines, 1954 – 1969
Date: 19th October 2010

In 1957 a number of women’s organizations were involved in planning a
government-sponsored Festival of Women – an event that indicates contemporary
awareness of and interest in the changing position of women. This study is similarly
concerned with the position of women in the 1950s and 60s, relating constructions of
the ‘modern’ woman in women’s magazines to post-war developments, such as
increasing levels of consumption and changing leisure patterns. There are two major
themes in the thesis: the housewife and the modern. The study illustrates the centrality
of ‘the housewife’ while accentuating the breadth and complexity of post-1945
women’s roles and identities, with a focus on two sites pivotal to constructions of
femininity in women’s magazines: the home and appearance. The study also explores
how women’s magazines shaped the modern, emphasizing the range of ways in which
this notion was constructed and understood. The concept of social capital is used to
examine the significance of the modern, looking at why it was so important and its
connection with ideas of exclusion and belonging.
The study looks at two magazines. Home and Country was the magazine of the
National Federation of Women’s Institutes, and hence it targeted rural women.
Woman’s Outlook, on the other hand, was the Women’s Co-operative Guild magazine,
aimed at working-class Guild members. Through comparisons between the two and
with Woman, a mass-circulation weekly magazine, the thesis demonstrates that their
respective rural and Co-operative identities were distinctive features that contrast with
the urban and mass consumption viewpoints evident in other titles. These rural and Co-
operative identities heavily influenced the perspectives of the organizational magazines
and created alternative visions of the modern. The relationship of these features to post-
war British modernity has received little attention, with historians’ focus on the urban
and the individual consumer positioning the countryside and the Co-operative
movement as antithetical to the modern. However, this study reveals that rural and Co-
operative interpretations of the modern enhance and develop understandings of key
themes in 1950s and 60s British history such as national identity, consumer culture,
generation and age.
The thesis situates Home and Country and Woman’s Outlook within broader
social and cultural networks and shows the extent to which women’s magazines
operated as cultural intermediaries. The study also engages with a number of
intersecting bodies of literature, such as revisionist accounts of domesticity and recent
work on women’s organizations, and contributes to various discussions including
housing in post-war Britain and feminist analyses of fashion and beauty. This
multifaceted investigation generates new insights into both the housewife and the
modern, insights which offer a more complex and nuanced account of 1950s and 60s
Britain and the position of women.
5
Declaration

No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other
institute of learning.

6
Copyright Statement

i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this
thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and
s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such
Copyright, including for administrative purposes.

ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or
electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it
or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the
University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such
copies made.

iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other
intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of
copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables
(“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned
by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property
and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without
the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual
Property and/or Reproductions.

iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication
and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual
Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in
the University IP Policy (see
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/policies/intellectual-
property.pdf), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the
University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The
University’s policy on presentation of Theses

7
Dedication and Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following:

Professors Laura Doan and Penny Summerfield, my doctoral supervisors who
have provided invaluable support and tremendous encouragement throughout all stages
of the doctorate; the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for their Doctoral
Competition and Research Preparation Masters Scheme awards – funding which has
greatly assisted successful completion of this PhD and the MA that preceded it; the
University of Manchester, for awarding payment of fees in the initial stages of the PhD
and for the institutional support that is so essential to postgraduate research; the
historians who have served on my periodic panel meetings: Dr Max Jones, Dr Ana
Carden-Coyne and especially Professor Frank Mort, whose comments have made an
enormous contribution to the standard of work produced; other members of the
University of Manchester History department, particularly Professor Hannah Barker, Dr
Julie-Marie Strange and Professor Bertrand Taithe, for their wise words and
encouragement; the researchers who have given feedback at various conferences and
study days where work towards this thesis has been presented, most particularly
attendees at the ESRC Women in the 1950s Seminar Series, whose thoughts have done
so much to enhance the ideas developed here.
The postgraduates who started as colleagues and ended as friends: Dr Stephen
Connolly, Dr Katherine Davies, Dr Helen Glew, Dr Anne-Marie Hughes, Dr Jo
Laycock, Dr James Mansell, Dr Lucinda Matthews-Jones, Dr Charlotte Wildman; the
University of Nottingham Department of History, notably Professor Helen Meller and
Dr Richard Gaunt, both of whom reassured and enthused me as an undergraduate there;
the Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, for their NFWI collections and
holdings of Woman; the National Co-operative Archives, Manchester, for their Co-
operative Press records and back catalogue of Woman’s Outlook, and with a special
mention to Gillian Lonergan and Sophie Stewart for their help and assistance over the
years; the children of Honor Wyatt: Julian Glover, for putting me in contact with his
sister, and Prudence Anderton, for the wealth of information on her mother’s career and
insight into her life and personality – this has enhanced my work immeasurably; my
parents, David and Susan Ritchie, without whose love and support I would not have
started the study, let alone finished it; my grandparents, George and Violet Brown,
Joseph and Beatrice Ritchie, who all belong to the post-war generation at the heart of
this thesis – my childhood memories of them, their homes and possessions have helped
me to better understand the perspectives I encountered in these magazines and, in turn, I
have come to remember their lives with new meanings and greater empathy (Granddad
Ritchie’s seemingly bizarre obsession with stainless tea-pots now making absolute
sense).
Finally, I would like to thank my great aunt, Doreen Turner. An interview about
her memories of the post-war WCG formed part of the research towards my BA
dissertation and her words have remained with me ever since, motivating me to further
explore why these women’s organizations meant so much to their members. She is the
inspiration behind this study and as a token of my gratitude and love, I dedicate this
thesis to her.

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Abbreviations

ACWW Association of Country Women Worldwide

BSI British Standards Institute

CA Consumers’ Association

CAC Consumer Advisory Council

CoID Council of Industrial Design

CP Co-operative Press

CWS Co-operative Wholesale Society

DIY Do-It-Yourself

EAW Electrical Association for Women

NCW National Council of Women

NFWI National Federation of Women’s Institutes

NHS National Health Service

OAP Old Age Pensioner

FPA Family Planning Association

UN United Nations

WAC Women’s Advisory Committee

WCG Women’s Co-operative Guild

WW2 World War Two

YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association

9
Introduction

In January 1957, Woman’s Outlook magazine featured a preview of the
forthcoming Festival of Women, a government-sponsored event that a number of
women’s organizations were involved in.1 The article asked ‘What are we really like,
we women of the 50s?’, before commenting on women’s position in post-war Britain:
We have the vote, we have the right to work, even after marriage, some of us, a
slowly increasing number, have the “rate for the job”, but have we as much
leisure? Have we enough time to devote to all the women’s organisations which
were so important in the early years of this century? Have we really achieved
emancipation from the drudgery of the home, or have we accepted higher
standards along with labour-saving equipment, and burdened ourselves just as
heavily as our mothers?2

The author shows awareness of the changing role of women in 1950s, changes that
mirrored wider social, cultural, economic and political shifts: mass democracy; married
women’s paid employment; the issue of equal pay; growth of privatized leisure;
increasing levels of consumption and its impact on women’s domestic roles.
This study is similarly concerned with the position of women in the 1950s and
60s, relating constructions of the ‘modern’ woman in women’s magazines to post-war
developments, such as increasing levels of consumption and changing leisure patterns.
There are two major themes in the thesis: the housewife and the modern. The study
illustrates the centrality of ‘the housewife’ while accentuating the breadth and
complexity of post-1945 women’s roles and identities, with a focus on two sites pivotal
to constructions of femininity in women’s magazines: the home and appearance. The
study also explores how women’s magazines shaped the modern, emphasizing the range
of ways in which this notion was constructed and understood. The concept of social
capital is used to examine the significance of the modern, looking at why it was so
important and its connection with ideas of exclusion and belonging.
The study looks at two magazines. Home and Country (H&C) was the
magazine of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, and hence it targeted rural
women.3 Woman’s Outlook (Outlook), on the other hand, was the Women’s Co-

1 ‘The Festival of Women’, The Times 28/11/1956, p.4.
2 ‘Festival of Women’, Outlook 12/01/1957, pp.16-17.
3 This thesis uses NFWI to denote the movement’s official policies and campaigns. The terms WI or
Institute refer to specific branches or de facto organizational activities and views. The WI began in
Canada in 1897, with the aim of educating rural women, but it was not until 1915 – when war emphasized
the need to increase food production – that there was the impetus to establish an organization for rural
women in Britain. Maggie Andrews, The Acceptable Face of Feminism – The Women’s Institute as a
Social Movement (London, 1997), pp.17-40; the National Federation of Women’s Institutes,
http://www.thewi.org.uk/index.aspx?id=1, accessed 03/08/2010.
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