Dubber 1997 Making

RADAR Research Archive and Digital Asset Repository Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Note if anything has been removed from thesis. Map p64 When referring to this work, the full bibliographic details must be given as follows: Dubber, M. (1997). “Making ends meet”: Working-class women’s strategies against poverty in West Oxfordshire, c. 1850 – 1900. PhD thesis. Oxford Brookes University. WWW.BROOKES.AC.UK/GO/RADAR `Making Ends Meet' : Working-class Womens' Strategies against Poverty in West Oxfordshire, c. 1850-1900. j ýi r1 i. ý ý ý" i by A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Oxford Brookes University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. October 1997 1 `Making ends meet': Working-class womens' strategies against poverty in West Oxfordshire, c. 1850-1900. by Melanie Dubber A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Oxford Brookes University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. October 1997. Abstract This thesis seeks to contribute to two areas of historical enquiry: the history of women and the history of poverty, by investigating the strategies used by women to cope with poverty. It attempts this in a systematic way by applying a taxonomy of strategies to the case study area of West Oxfordshire from the mid-to-late nineteenth century. As such, it broadens our understanding of the lives of women living in a rural area as well as examining poverty from the perspective of the responsesto it. Three main strategies were considered; employment, household management and community strategies. General results of the analysis suggest that the strategic approach is a valuable method of examining the way poor rural women coped with poverty, highlighting the interconnections between their roles of reproduction, production and consumption. Specific results suggest that first, a radical rethink of the role and importance of the home as a female power base is required. Second, although strategies are difficult to quantify, certain strategies appear to have been more popular than others; household managementemerged as the pivotal strategy ii to make ends meet. Careful spending and saving and the ability to utilise a variety of resouces such as animal husbandry and gardens and allotments was necessaryin the fight against poverty. Employment, although of value, could not always be relied upon to provide a steady, regular income. Community strategies were of some value. They were provided informally by kin and the neighbourhood and formally by charities and poor relief. Third, certain factors were influential concerning the nature of strategies; namely duration of need, age and marital status, geographical location, seasonality and conditions for eligibility. The organic nature of the taxonomy means that it can be expanded to include additional strategies and used to study other groups of women such as the middle-class, different historical periods and geographical locations. iii Table of Contents Page No. Abstract i Table of contents iii List of tables and figures ix Abbreviations used for locations xii Acknowledgements xiii Dedication xv SectionA The researchproblem I Chapter1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background to the thesis 1 1.2 The research problem 3 1.3 Methodology 15 1.3.1 The case study area: an economic and social profile 17 1.4 The sources and the analytical and interpretative problems 34 posed by their nature and limitations 1.5 The aims of the thesis 44 Footnotes to chapter 1 46 Section B Women's employment strategies 56 Introduction 56 Chapter 2 Rural female employment: its interpretations and 58 employment opportunities within the case study area. 2.1 Introduction 58 2.2 The need to work 59 2.3 Employment opportunities for women in rural areas 60 2.4 Employment opportunities for women in the case study area 62 iv 2.4.1 Introduction 62 2.4.2 Gloving 63 2.4.3 Agriculture 65 2.4.4 Domestic service 68 2.4.5 Laundry and cleaning work 72 2.4.6 Sewing 73 2.4.7 Retailing 75 2.4.8 Trades 78 2.4.9 Accommodation provision 78 2.4.10 Nursing and midwifery 79 2.4.11 Teaching 81 2.4.12 Conclusion on employment opportunities 82 within the case study area 2.5 Conclusion 82 84 Footnotes to chapter 2 89 Chapter 3 Factors affecting employment patterns 3.1 Introduction 89 89 3.2 The frame of reference for determining employment patterns 3.3 Key factors affecting women's employment patterns 90 home 90 3.3.1 Location of employment: the importance of the 93 3.3.2 Duration of employment: flexibility 3.3.3 Family connections 96 3.3.3.1 Settlement patterns 101 3.3.4 Gender 103 3.4 Conclusion 106 Footnotes to chapter 3 108 V Chapter 4 The value of employment: rewards and limitations 111 4.1 Introduction 111 4.2 The rewards of employment 11l 4.2.1 The methods of payment 112 4.2.2 Self-esteem 120 4.2.3 Promotion 121 4.2.4 Social contact 122 4.2.5 Conclusion: the rewards of employment 122 4.3 The limitations of employment 123 4.3.1 Contemporary middle-class observations on the 123 problems of female employment 4.3.1.1 The effects of employment on morality 123 4.3.1.2 The effects of employment on education 125 4.3.1.3 The effects of employment on home and family 128 4.3.2 The hidden costs of employment 130 4.3.3 The physical costs of employment 131 4.3.4 The problems created by the nature of varied 132 employment opportunities 4.4 Conclusion to chapter 4 and section B 132 Footnotes to chapter 4 135 Section C Household managementstrategies 139 Chapter 5 The managementof the household: income generation, 141 spending and saving 5.1 Introduction 141 5.1.1Household roles andgender: the divisionsof tabour 143 andthe balanceof power within the household 5.2 Income generation 145 vi 5.3 Spending 148 5.4 Saving 152 5.5 Conclusion 156 Footnote to Introduction to section C 158 Footnotes to chapter 5 158 Chapter 6 Household management:resource and skill strategies 164 6.1 Introduction 164 6.2 Resources to assist with household management 164 6.2.1 Gardens and allotments 165 6.2.2 Animal husbandry 170 6.2.3 Countryside resources 173 6.2.4 Housing 176 6.3 Skills to assist with household management 179 6.3.1 Food preparation 179 6.3.2 Sewing 184 6.4 Conclusion 185 Footnotes to chapter 6 189 Section D Community strategies 194 195 Chapter 7 Informal networks of support 7.1 Introduction 195 7.2 Kin: extended family networks of support 196 7.2.1 Types of support provided by kin 196 7.2.2 The value of kin support 204 7.3 Neighbourhood networks of support 204 7.3.1 Types of support provided by the neighbourhood 206 7.3.2 The value of neighbourhood support 208 7.4 Conclusion 208 vii Footnotes to chapter 7 209 Chapter 8 Formal networks of support 212 8.1 Introduction 212 8.2 Charitable provision 213 8.2.1 Types of charitable provision 216 8.2.1.1 Food 216 8.2.1.2 Clothing 219 8.2.1.3 Fuel 221 8.2.1.4 Housing 222 8.2.1.5 Money 223 8.2.1.6 Education, training and employment 224 8.2.2 Conclusion to charitable provision 225 8.3 Poor relief 227 8.3.1 Poor relief as a strategy against poverty: geographical 229 and time continua 8.3.2 Conclusion to poor relief provision 241 242 8.4 Conclusion to formal networks of support 244 Footnotes to chapter 8 Section E Conclusion 250 Chapter 9 Conclusion 250 9.1 Introduction 250 9.2 Themes drawn out by the research 250 9.3 Additional themes uncovered by the research 254 9.3.1 Crime as a strategy against poverty 254 9.3.2 Movement as a strategy against poverty 255 9.3.3 A comparative element: the strategies of middle-class 256 women viii 9.4 The strategic approach as a way of studying women's 256 history Footnotes to chapter 9 259 Postscript 261 Bibliography 262 IX List of Tables and Figures PageNo. Fig. 1 The taxonomy of strategies 14-15 Fig. 2 The casestudy area 21 Fig. 3 Main source categories consulted for the thesis 39 Fig. 4 List of general employment types that women had 62 accessto in the casestudy area Fig. 5 Distribution of gloving in West Oxfordshire 64 Fig. 6 Categories of domestic servants cited in local 68-69 sources relating to the casestudy area Table 1 Generaland specificdomestic service jobs in 69-70 Charlburyusing the 1851and 1891census enumerators' returns Fig. 7 Types of household employing servants 70-71 in the case study area Fig. 8 List of sewing women categories using the 1851 74-75 and 1891 census enumerators' returns for the case study area Fig. 9 Model used to help determine the key factors 90 affecting employment patterns Table 2 Ages of children of gloveress mothers in Fawler in 1851 92 Table 3 Settlements in the case study area where more 101-102 than 25% of females aged 12 years and over were listed as gloveresses in the 1851 census Fig.

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