This Working-Day World: Women's Lives And Culture(s) In Britain, 1914-1945

219 Pages·1994·3.42 MB·English

by  Sybil Oldfield

This Working-Day World
Feminist Perspectives on The Past and Present
Advisory Editorial Board
Lisa Adkins, University of The West of England, UK
Harriet Bradley, University of Sunderland, UK
Barbara Caine, University of Sydney, Australia
Sara Delamont, University of Wales College of Cardiff, UK
Mary Evans, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Gabriele Griffin, Nene College, UK
Jalna Hanmer, University of Bradford, UK
Maggie Humm, University of East London, UK
Sue Lees, University of North London, UK
Diana Leonard, University of London, UK
Terry Lovell, University of Warwick, UK
Maureen McNeil, University of Birmingham, UK
Ann Phoenix, University of London, UK
Caroline Ramazanoglu, University of London, UK
Sue Scott, University of Manchester, UK
Janet Siltanen, University of Edinburgh, UK
Dale Spender, Australia
Penny Summerfield, University of Lancaster, UK
Martha Vicinus, University of Michigan, USA
Claire Wallace, University of Lancaster, UK
Christine Zmroczek, Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, UK
This Working-Day World
Women's Lives and Culture(s) in
Britain 1914-1945
Edited by
Sybil Oldfield
UK Taylor & Francis Ltd, 4 John St., London WC1N 2ET
USA Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007
© Selection and editorial material copyright Sybil Oldfield, 1994
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
permission in writing from the Publisher.
First published 1994
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection
of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
A Catalogue Record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 0-203-45137-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-45810-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0 7484 0107 5 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0 7484 0108 3 pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available on
request
Series cover design by Amanda Barragry, additional artwork by Hybert
• Design & Type. Photograph, Stall-holder at Brixton Market, by
Margaret Monck.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments v iii
Introduction 1
Sybil Oldfield
Section I Social History 5
Chapter 1 The Weekly Wash 6
Christine Zmroczek
Chapter 2 A ‘Trade Union for Married Women’: The Women’s Co- 18
operative Guild 1914–1920
Gillian Scott
Chapter 3 The Women’s Institute Movement—The Acceptable Face of 29
Feminism&
Maggie Morgan
Chapter 4 A Woman’s Right to Work& The Role of Women in the 40
Unemployed Movement Between the Wars
Sue Bruley
Chapter 5 The Culture of Femininity in Women’s Teacher Training 55
Colleges 1914–1945
Elizabeth Edwards
Chapter 6 The Diary of Doreen Bates: Single Parenthood and the Civil 70
Service
Elizabeth McClair
Section II Political History 75
Chapter 7 Gendering Patriotism: Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and 76
World War One
Jacqueline de Vries
vi
Chapter 8 England’s Cassandras in World War One 90
Sybil Oldfield
Chapter 9 Women in the British Union of Fascists, 1932–1940 1 02
Martin Durham
Chapter 10 British Feminists and Anti-Fascism in the 1930s 1 12
Johanna Alberti
Chapter 11 Working with the ‘Kindertransports’ 1 25
Veronica Gillespie
Chapter 12 An Austrian Refugee in Wartime Manchester 1 35
Hanna Behrend
Section III Cultural History 1 40
Chapter 13 ‘A Fair Field and No Favour’: Women Artists Working in 1 41
Britain Between the Wars
Katy Deepwell
Chapter 14 British Women Surrealists—Deviants from Deviance& 1 55
Brigitte Libmann
Chapter 15 Hilda Matheson and the BBC, 1926–1940 1 68
Fred Hunter
Chapter 16 ‘Nothing is Impracticable for a Single, Middle-Aged Woman 1 75
with an Income of her Own’: The Spinster in Women’s Fiction
of the 1920s
Maroula Joannou
Chapter 17 Chloe, Olivia, Isabel, Letitia, Harriette, Honor, and Many More: 1 93
Women in Medicine and Biomedical Science, 1914–1945
Lesley A. Hall
Notes on Contributors 2 04
Appendix Archive Resources for Research on 20th Century British 2 06
Women
Index 2 08
Illustrations
Marian Ellis 97
Jewish refugee children at UK customs 126
Ethel Walker, Vanessa (1937) 142
Edith Granger-Taylor, Allegory (1934) 146
Laura Knight, Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-Ring 152
Lee Miller, Revenge on Culture 160
Acknowledgments
For permission to reproduce the illustrations we are most grateful to the following:
To John Monck for ‘Stall-holder at Brixton Market’ (cover), photograph by
Margaret Monck.
To Tony Cripps for the photograph of Marian Ellis.
To The Wiener Library, London for ‘Jewish refugee children at UK customs’.
To Jenny Granger-Taylor and the British Library for Allegory (1934) by Edith
Granger-Taylor.
To the Imperial War Museum for Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-Ring by Dame
Laura Knight.
To Marian Kratochwil and the Tate Gallery for Vanessa (1937) by Dame Ethel
Walker.
To the Lee Miller Archives, Chiddingly, East Sussex, for Revenge on Culture by Lee
Miller.
Mrs Phyllis Smith at the University of Sussex was indispensable in the production
of a publishable text—we all owe her our sincerest thanks.
Rosalind: O how full of briers is this working-day world!
SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It