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University of Dundee DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Lass o' Pairts Social mobility for women through education in Scotland, 1850-1901. McCall, Alison Taylor Award date: 2013 Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Lass o' Pairts Social mobility for women through education in Scotland, 1850-1901. Alison Taylor McCall 2013 University of Dundee Conditions for Use and Duplication Copyright of this work belongs to the author unless otherwise identified in the body of the thesis. It is permitted to use and duplicate this work only for personal and non-commercial research, study or criticism/review. You must obtain prior written consent from the author for any other use. Any quotation from this thesis must be acknowledged using the normal academic conventions. It is not permitted to supply the whole or part of this thesis to any other person or to post the same on any website or other online location without the prior written consent of the author. Contact the Discovery team ([email protected]) with any queries about the use or acknowledgement of this work. i UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE The Lass o' Pairts: Social mobility for women through education in Scotland, 1850-1901. Alison Taylor McCall A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2013 ii Abstract This thesis examines education and opportunity for girls and young women in mid to late Victorian Scotland. The study involves analysis of girls’ educational opportunities, and an examination of the career and life options available to those who had successfully accessed education to discover whether there was a so-called ‘lass o’ pairts’ - a woman who was able, regardless of her social background, to achieve upward social mobility through educational opportunity and career advancement. This aim was achieved by examining the lives of women at various stages, through school, pupil teacherships, training college, and teaching. Teaching offered women a structured profession, with recognised qualifications and the possibility of promotion. During the period 1850-1901, tens of thousands of young Scottish women sat the Entrance examination to Teacher Training College. To get a representative cross- section of Scottish society, five diverse areas were chosen; Kildonan, Loth and Clyne in east Sutherland, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Govan. Sources such as examination results lists and school board minutes were cross-referenced with census returns to identify the social origins of the girls and women. This confirmed previous research that teachers were drawn largely from the skilled working classes and lower middle classes. Careers were tracked through School Board records of appointments and promotions, whilst social mobility was simultaneously tracked through census returns. Other primary sources used included newspapers, student newspapers and the Educational News, the journal of the E.I.S. Within Scotland, the existence of a separate education for Roman Catholics enabled comparison with the state system and conclusions regarding the two parallel systems to be drawn. The thesis concludes that girls and women could and did access education and careers, which conferred upward social mobility, well-paid jobs and social status. iii Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements v List of Illustrations vii List of Tables viii List of Acronyms ix Introduction 1 The lad o’ pairts 3 Fictional representation of the lad and lass o’ pairts 15 The Scottish educational system 20 Women’s careers in Victorian Scotland 24 The superfluous woman 25 Conclusion 38 Chapter One – The Five Areas. 46 Chapter Two – Basic Educational Provision. 64 Introduction 64 The situation immediately prior to 1872 64 The School Boards 70 The Provision of Schools after 1872 75 Half-timers 88 Truancy 90 Needlework 99 Conclusion 102 Chapter Three – Female Access to Post-Elementary education. 104 Introduction 104 Staying on at school 106 Monitors 109 Pupil teachers 112 Conclusion 119 Chapter Four – Teacher Training 121 Introduction 121 College Life 129 Entrance Examination 132 Sutherland 137 Aberdeen 137 Dundee 139 Govan 142 Edinburgh 143 The importance of the successful ‘lass’ to local identity. 145 Conclusion 146 iv Chapter Five – Careers in Teaching 149 Introduction 149 Types of teacher 151 Salaries 155 The Impact of Marriage 163 Teaching as a means of transition into other careers 167 Kildonan, Loth and Clyne 173 Aberdeen 176 Dundee 178 Govan 183 Edinburgh 184 Conclusion 185 Chapter Six -Female Teachers in Promoted Posts 187 Introduction 187 Promoted posts 188 Salaries 193 The E.I.S. 202 Marriage 206 Kildonan, Loth and Clyne 208 Dundee 209 Govan 210 Edinburgh 211 Aberdeen 213 Conclusion 218 Chapter Seven – Education of Roman Catholic Girls in Victorian Scotland 220 Introduction 220 Teacher Training 227 Roman Catholic Schools 240 Kildonan, Loth and Clyne 244 Aberdeen 244 Dundee 246 Govan 248 Edinburgh 249 Conclusion 250 Conclusion 252 Appendix One - Schools from which pupil teachers sat the Entrance Examination to Teacher Training College 1894 266 Appendix Two - Students at Dowanhill 1901 census 285 Bibliography 288 Index of Female Names 299 v Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors, Prof. Callum Brown and Prof. Perry Willson. Perry convinced me to move my research from “kitchen table” passionate interest to formal research, for which I am hugely grateful. Perry and Callum have been consistently encouraging and only intermittently despairing. I would also like to thank the members of Women’s History Scotland, past and present, for their constant encouragement and kindness since I first joined WHS in May 2002. I am grateful for the encouragement of my PhD predecessor Dr Sarah Browne. My fellow PhD students, Eddie Small, Laura Paterson and Blair Smith, and fellow M.Litt students Ruth, Shivani, Nel and Gavin. I have been a member of Aberdeen & North East Scotland Family History since 1984; I am grateful to many members, too many to list individually, for their comradeship over the years. I would particularly like to acknowledge Jean Shirer and Gay Murton. I would like to thank Lis Smith, St Andrews University; Lindy Moore; Jane McDermid, Southampton University; Stuart Donald, Archivist for the Episcopalian church in Aberdeen; Dr Kenneth Baxter, Dundee University and Dr. Christine Joy, School Archivist, Manchester School for Girls, for their helpful correspondence. I would like to acknowledge the following individuals who shared information from their own family histories; Rob McFarlane (re the five McFarlane cousins), John Collins (re the Tomory family) and Pat Oakes and David Murie (re Margaret Bella and Jessie Kidd). I would like to thank the staff of Aberdeen Central Library, Aberdeen Archives, Aberdeen University Special Collections, Highland Archives, Inverness, Timeline, Helmsdale, Dundee University Archives, Dundee City Archives, Dundee Library Local Collection, Edinburgh City Archives, and the Mitchell Library for their help. vi For all those who supported me on the “Thesis Support” thread on A Certain Web Community. You know who you are, even if I don’t. My friends, Catherine Johnstone and Ann MacRae Scullion, are always there for me. Finally, John, Alexander and Lucy, the joy of my life, my heart’s delight. vii List of Illustrations ‘Education’ motif from South Bridge School, Edinburgh x Map of Scotland 47 Woodside School, Aberdeen 83 Leith Walk School, Edinburgh 86 Dundee’s School Board officers 91 Stow College, Glasgow 122 Church of Scotland Teacher Training College, Aberdeen 123 Training College class photograph, Aberdeen, 1890 131 Trainee teachers at Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh, c. 1885 140 Teachers and students at the College Boarding house in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, around 1895. 143 Advertisement for the Eclipse Blackboard 151 Free Kindergarten, Canongate, 1903 213 Isabella Low Chalmers, Mrs Skea 216 viii List of Tables Table 1.1 – Population of the five areas. 49 Table 1.2 – Age profile of Marrel. 50 Table 1.3 – The gender balance in 1851 by area. 52 Table 2.1 – School attendance by age in Dundee in 1871. 68 Table 3.1 - Number of students in Edinburgh School Board Schools. 85 Table 3.2 - Schoolchildren by age and sex in Loth in 1881. 107 Table 3.3: Pupil teacher pay-rate in Govan in 1873. 118 Table 4.1. Top 100 Entrance examination for Teacher Training College. 134 Table 4.2. Top 500 Entrance examination for Teacher Training College. 136 Table 5.1 Number of teachers in Scotland. 149 Table 5.2 Average salary for certificated teachers. 157 Table 5.3: Teaching Salaries in Aberdeen in 1896. 158 Table 5.4 The number of assistant teachers and pupil teachers in Public Elementary Schools, employed by Dundee School Board. 179 Table 5.5 Teachers employed by Dundee School Board April 1890. 182 Table 7.1 Scottish Trainee female Roman Catholic teachers at Mount Pleasant College, Liverpool, in 1881 and 1891. 230 Table 7.2 Position in pass list of Entrance Examination to teacher training college of candidates from religious schools in 1894. 231 Table 7.3. Position in pass list of Entrance Examination to teacher training college of candidates from religious schools in 1895.