Women Assemble: Women Workers and the New Industries in Inter-War Britain

338 Pages·2022·26.568 MB·English

by  Miriam Glucksmann

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
WOMEN AND WORK
Volume 6
WOMEN ASSEMBLE

WOMEN ASSEMBLE
Women Workers and the New
Industries in Inter-War Britain
MIRIAM GLUCKSMANN
First published in 1990 by Routledge
This edition first published in 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 1990 Miriam Glucksmann
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-27038-8 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28543-6 (Volume 6) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28548-1 (Volume 6) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-29734-5 (Volume 6) (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003297345
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies
may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and
would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable
to trace.
Women assemble
Women workers and the new
industries in inter-war Britain
Miriam Glucksmann
London and New York
First published 1990
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1990 Miriam Glucksmann
Typeset by
NWL Editorial Services, Langport, Somerset TA10 9DG
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Glucksmann, Miriam
Women assemble: women workers and the new industries in
inter-war Britain
1. Great Britain. Women. Employment. Historical sources
I. Title
331.4'0941
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Glucksmann, Miriam.
Women assemble: women workers and the new industries in
inter-war Britain / Miriam Glucksmann.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Women—Employment—Great Britain—History—20th
century. 2. Assembly-line methods—History—20th
century. 3. Great Britain—Economic conditions—
1918-1945. I. Title.
HD6135.G58 1990 89-70180
331.4'0941'09041-^dc20 CIP
ISBN (M15-03196-6
ISBN O-415-03197-4 (pbk)
Contents
List of tables vii
List of figures viii viii
Acknowledgements ix
List of abbreviations x
1 Introduction 1
Hidden from history 7
Theoretical perspectives 10
A feminist and historical materialist framework 11
Reconstructing the past 23
2 The changing pattern of women's employment 29
Three profiles 29
Women's waged work 37
Changing areas of women's work 46
Women in the electrical engineering and food
processing industries 57
3 The restructuring of industrial capitalism 67
Decline of nineteenth-century heavy industry 67
The emergence of new industries 72
4 Five factories 93
Peek Frean 95
Electrical and Musical Instruments Limited 111
/. Lyons and Co. Ltd 123
Morphy Richards 131
Hoover 137
Contents
5 Women assembling: work, wages and assembly-
line production 143
The assembly-line production process 147
Technical division of labour and skill structure 154
Relations of production of assembly-line workers 158
6 Women assembled: gender and the division of labour 197
Relationship between technical and sexual divisions of labour 197
Material basis of segregation 209
Ideological construction of women's work: sex-typing and
the marriage bar 216
7 Homeward bound: changes in domestic production and
consumption 226
Circuits of domestic production and consumption 226
Domestic labour 228
'Ideal' home and 'ideal* housewife 236
Domestic service 244
8 Women and the total social organization of labour 257
Class relations of women assembly workers 259
Organization of total social labour 265
Theoretical resonances 269
Future directions 279
Appendix: List of main people interviewed 283
Notes 285
References 304
Index 319
Tables
1 Number of women aged 16 to 64 in insured employment,
1923, 1929, and 1932-8 40
2 Age-specific participation rates of women, England and
Wales, 1911 to 1951 41
3 Proportion of women occupied by region, 1931 44
4 Growth in number of insured persons, male and female,
by region, 1923-38 45
5a Changes in numbers of women employed in selected
industries, England and Wales, 1921 and 1931 47
5b Changes in numbers of women employed in selected
industries, England and Wales, 1931 and 1951 47
6 Number of insured employees in selected industries.
Women aged 16 to 64 at each mid-year, United Kingdom 48-9
7a Principal occupations of women in 1921 and 1931 52
7b Principal occupations of women in 1931 and 1951 53
8 Proportion of women occupied at each age period in
selected occupations, 1931 56
9 Women and men employed in electrical installations,
cables and apparatus (Census Industry Order VI5),
1921 and 1931 59
10 Average numbers employed in electrical engineering,
1930 and 1935, by age and sex 60
11 Number of insured persons engaged in electric cables,
wire, and electric lamps in Greater London, July 1923 and
1930, classified by sex and age 60
12 Age of operatives in electrical manufacture, 1931, by sex 61
13 Operatives in the food trade, 1930 and 1935, by sex
and age 64
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