Table Of ContentWorking-class Girls in
Nineteenth-century
England
Life, Work and Schooling
Meg Gomersall
WORKING-CLASS GIRLS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY
ENGLAND
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Working-class Girls in
Nineteenth-century
England
Life, Work and Schooling
Meg Gomersall
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
First published in Great Britain 1997 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-62201-8 ISBN 978-0-230-37537-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230375376
First published in the United States of America 1997 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue,
NewYork,N.Y.10010
ISBN 978-0-312-12970-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gomersall, Meg.
Working-class girls in nineteenth-century England: life, work and
schooling 1 Meg Gomersall.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-12970-5 (cloth)
I. Girls-England-History-19th century. 2. Women-Education
-England-History-19th century. 3. Working class families-
-England-History-19th century. I. Title.
HQ1229.G66 1996
305.4'0942-<1c20 95-51280
CIP
© Meg Gomersall 1997
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WI P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
10 9 8 7 6 5 432 1
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97
Contents
List of Tables vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction
1 Patriarchy Challenged? Women and Work in
Nineteenth-century Industrial Lancashire 8
The early stages of industrialisation 8
The Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844 13
Towards consensus 17
Women's views 22
Conclusions 27
2 Women's Work in Agricultural Production:
Nineteenth-century Norfolk and Suffolk 30
The 1834 Poor Law 34
Towards consensus? 36
Conclusions 42
3 Schooling for Social Control? The Early
Nineteenth Century 45
The purposes and provisions of schooling 45
Popular views on girls' schooling 48
Working-class views 50
Access to schooling and education 54
Conclusions 60
4 Religion, Reading and Really Useful Knowledge 62
Curriculum development 65
Consumer demand 68
Experiences and achievements 71
Conclusions 75
5 An Education of Principle: the Later Nineteenth Century 78
Working-class views 86
State policies 91
Access to schooling 92
Conclusions 98
v
VI Contents
6 Schooling for Domesticity? The Later
Nineteenth Century 100
Curriculum practices 100
Standards of attainment 108
The 'deficiencies' of schooling 114
Conclusions 121
7 What a Woman Knows: the Significance
of Education in the Lives of Working-class Women 123
Industrial capitalism, class struggle and patriarchy in
nineteenth-century Lancashire 125
Class alienation and patriarchy in rural Norfolk and Suffolk 128
Schooling and education 130
8 From the Past to the Present 138
From private to public patriarchy 139
Schooling, education and the reproduction of class and gender 143
Future prospects in schooling? 148
Notes 151
Bibliography 170
List of Tables
3.1 Average number of children enrolled at Baldwin's
Gardens School, 1812-32 55
3.2 Estimated enrolment at day school, UK, 1833 59
4.1 Gender differences in standards of achievement in
the central National schools, 1829 73
6.1 Gender differences in standards of achievement in
workhouse schools, 1848-49 103
6.2 Gender differences in curriculum in the later 1850s
in public schools in the UK 109
6.3 Regional and gender differences in levels of
illiteracy, Lancashire, Norfolk and Suffolk, 1839-85 120
vii
Acknowledgements
My mother was an intelligent girl who grew up in rural Suffolk in the
1930s. She passed what was then known as the scholarship examination
and, had she been allowed to attend grammar school, she would have
enjoyed an extended academic education and may even have gone on to
attend university. Unfortunately, my grandfather thought that a grammar
school education was wasted on a girl, who after all would only be a
housewife. Finishing elementary school at the earliest possible leaving
age, she became a domestic servant, a job which was still the main occu
pational destination for working-class country girls in the region. She did
not remain a servant for long and her story of being dismissed for eating
the master's dinner was one I always cherished, but though she eventually
achieved a responsible post in the Civil Service and gained some
qualifications through study at evening classes, she always saw her limited
schooling as a major deprivation.
All-age elementary schools such as the one my mother attended disap
peared after the 1944 Education Act and my brother and I both went to state
grammar schools at the age of 11. My father's ill health meant that money
was tight but my mother insisted that I should stay on at school and have the
chance to go to college. Thanks to the state education sytem and my
mother's encouragement, I did achieve this goal. But, rather than the glitter
ing career (and marriage to a middle-class man with good prospects) that my
mother thought my university education would bring me, I became a
teacher. This was because by the time I got my degree I had a young family
and needed ajob that could be 'fitted in' around my domestic commitments.
Despite my superior educational opportunities, my adult life became very
similar to my mother's. I had a better job in terms of status and earnings,
but, like her, I was employed in a traditional area of 'women's work' and,
like her, spent most of my 'leisure' time cooking, cleaning, washing and all
the other thousand and one things that women do.
All these experiences have informed the research that led to this book. It
took me many years to complete in between the demands of full-time
work and home and family and the practical and moral support of my
husband Tom has always been important. And, though my son's domestic
skills may have been encouraged more by his dissatisfaction with the
quality of my ironing than the persuasive powers of my feminist beliefs,
he deserves particular thanks for keeping the house going when I was
working away from home. I also owe special thanks to Richard Aldrich at
viii
Acknowledgements
IX
London University Institute of Education. He supervised the Ph.D. thesis
from which this book evolved and managed to combine patience with rig
orous and constructive criticism, when long stretches of silence were fol
lowed by a mass of often only half-digested material from me. His belief
in my capabilities was also a great support when I despaired of ever
finishing the work. And finally, lowe thanks to Nathan, who let me have a
computer on long-term loan when mine crashed and only asked for this
acknowledgement in payment. So thanks Nathan.
