Table Of ContentGENDER IN HISTORY
Series editors:
Lynn Abrams, Cordelia Beattie, Pam Sharpe and Penny Summerfield
The expansion of research into the history of women and gender since the
1970s has changed the face of history. Using the insights of feminist theory and
of historians of women, gender historians have explored the configuration in
the past of gender identities and relations between the sexes. They have also
investigated the history of sexuality and family relations, and analysed ideas and
ideals of masculinity and femininity. Yet gender history has not abandoned the
original, inspirational project of women’s history: to recover and reveal the lived
experience of women in the past and the present.
The series Gender in History provides a forum for these developments. Its
historical coverage extends from the medieval to the modern periods, and
its geographical scope encompasses not only Europe and North America but
all corners of the globe. The series aims to investigate the social and cultural
constructions of gender in historical sources, as well as the gendering of
historical discourse itself. It embraces both detailed case studies of specific
regions or periods and broader treatments of major themes. Gender in History
books are designed to meet the needs of both scholars and students working in
this dynamic area of historical research.
Modern motherhood
Davis_ModernMotherhood.indd 1 05/12/2011 09:32
selected titles available
in the series
Myth and materiality in a woman’s world: Shetland 1800–2000
Lynn Abrams
Destined for a life of service: defining African–Jamaican womanhood, 1865–1938
Henrice Altink
Gender and housing in Soviet Russia: private life in a public space
Lynne Attwood
Love, intimacy and power: marital relationships in Scotland, 1650–1850
Katie Barclay
History, patriarchy and the challenge of feminism
(with University of Pennsylvania Press) Judith Bennett
Women of the right spirit: paid organisers of the Women’s Social
and Political Union (WSPU) 1904–18 Krista Cowman
Living in sin: cohabiting as husband and wife in nineteenth-century England
Ginger S. Frost
Murder and morality in Victorian Britain: the story of Madeleine Smith
Eleanor Gordon and Gwyneth Nair
The shadow of marriage: singleness in England, 1914–60 Katherine Holden
Women and the shaping of British Methodism: persistent preachers, 1807–1907
Jennifer Lloyd
The feminine public sphere: middle-class women and civic life
in Scotland, c. 1870-1914 Megan Smitley
Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy and the Victorian feminist movement:
the biography of an insurgent woman Maureen Wright
Davis_ModernMotherhood.indd 2 05/12/2011 09:32
modern
m otherhood
WoMEN ANd FAMILY IN
ENGLANd, c. 1945–2000
Angela davis
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
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Copyright © Angela davis 2012
The right of Angela davis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with the Copyright, designs and Patents Act 19.
Published by Manchester University Press
oxford Road, Manchester m1 9nr, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, n 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave
175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
n 10010, USA
Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press
University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada t 12
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
n 97 0 7190 455 hardback
First published 2012
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset in Minion with Scala Sans display
by Koinonia, Manchester
Printed in Great Britain
by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
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Contents
noedement page vii
t of reton viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Family and community: surveying women and the family 15
Educating mothers: family, school and antenatal education 5
4 Pregnancy and childbirth: antenatal care, birth and postnatal care 4
5 Experts and childcare ‘bibles’: mothers and advice literature 112
Working and caring: women’s labour inside and outside the home 142
7 Breadwinners and homemakers: ideals of men and women in the family 177
Conclusions 207
Appendices
1 Typical interview schedule 21
2 oxfordshire interviewees’ biographical details 21
eet orph of puhed eondr oure 22
ndex 25
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Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank the women who shared their recollections and thoughts
with me. I hope they will feel I have done justice to their memories.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Bodleian Library, oxford; the
British Library; the Centre for oxfordshire Studies; the Elizabeth Roberts Archive
at the Centre for North-West Regional Studies, Lancaster University; the Trustees
of the Mass observation Archive, University of Sussex; the Wellcome Library; and
the Women’s Library.
I began the research on which the book is based as a dPhil student at the
University of oxford (200–2007). I am grateful to the department for C ontinuing
Education and St Cross College for the research grants they provided. I completed
the book while a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick
(200–2010). I am indebted to the Leverhulme Trust for their generous support.
I would like to thank the many colleagues who have offered advice and
constructive criticisms. Special thanks go to my dPhil supervisors, Janet Howarth
and Kate Tiller; my dPhil examiners, Sally Alexander and John davis; and my
colleagues at the University of Warwick.
Final thanks go to my family and friends who have all helped with the
writing of this book.
vii
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List of Abbreviations
AIMS Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BLISS Baby Life Support Systems
ERA Elizabeth Roberts Archive
GP general practitioner
MoA Mass observation Archive
MoH Medical officer of Health
NCT National Childbirth Trust
NHS National Health Service
oWL oxford Women’s Liberation
PPA Pre-school Playgroups Association
SANdS Stillbirth and Neonatal death Society
WHo World Health organization
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1
Introduction
T
he years following 1945 were marked by significant social develop-
ments. Yet, the post-war era remains greatly neglected by historians.1
Perspectives on the period also tend to be over- generalised. For
example, the 1950s are often seen as a golden age of prosperity and
consensus before the upheavals of the 190s. In reality, as has been increas-
ingly demonstrated, the picture is more nuanced. Many of the social
changes believed to have occurred after the war had already commenced
beforehand and there was a great deal of continuity as well as change
in the years that followed. In recent years historians have shown how
these developments were also mediated by factors such as gender, class,
region and ethnicity. This book builds upon such existing scholarship but
offers new insights through its focus on motherhood. Looking through
the prism of motherhood provides a way of understanding the complex
social changes taking place during this time. Motherhood is an area where
a number of discourses and practices meet, such as education, health care,
psychology, labour market trends and state intervention. In consequence
the experience of motherhood has a wide resonance, demonstrating
change in: women’s lives, gender relations, culture and society, family and
community patterns, health and welfare, and the relationship between the
family and the state. drawing on the themes of continuity and change I
will examine the legacies of these developments and will consider what
they indicate about both the past and future of motherhood in England.
While motherhood is both a biological and cultural state there is, as
Ellen Ross argues, little that is truly ‘natural’ about an institution which
is so embedded in social and cultural practices.2 Ideas about motherhood
have accordingly changed over the centuries. Indeed the term ‘mother-
hood’ itself seems to be a relatively recent invention. Ann dally cites
1597 as the first entry for ‘motherhood’ in the Oxford English Dictionary,
and then only as a fact rather than an ideology. She argues it was not
1
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