“ON AN EQUAL FOOTING WITH MEN?” WOMEN AND WORK AT THE BBC, 1923-1939 Catherine Murphy Goldsmiths College University of London PhD 2011 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Catherine Murphy, hereby declare that all the material contained in this thesis is my own work. 2 Abstract This thesis is a study of women’s employment in the BBC during the 1920s and 1930s and poses the questions – what was the BBC like as a place for women to work, and how equal were they? While there has been wide research into a variety of aspects of the BBC during the inter-war years, to date there has been only cursory consideration of the role of women in the Company/Corporation. The BBC is a particularly significant organisation to study because women worked at all levels, apart from the very top; as charwomen and kitchen hands; as secretaries and clerical staff; as drama producers, advertising representatives and Children’s Hour Organisers. Prior to the Second World War, three women, Hilda Matheson, Mary Somerville and Isa Benzie, attained Director status. The BBC viewed itself as a progressive employer, one that supported equal promotion prospects and equal pay. However, understated sexual discrimination was commonplace and in 1932, a Marriage Bar was introduced. The practice of marriage bars was widespread in the inter-war years yet the BBC was never fully committed to its bar and ‘exceptional’ married women and women judged to be useful to the Corporation continued to be employed and retained. This study considers the many different experiences of women and work at the BBC: married and single, waged and the salaried, young and old; graduate and non-graduate. As well as positioning itself within the historiography of the BBC, this thesis is the first to offer a detailed analysis of women’s employment in a large inter-war institution, one in which women’s experience of work was largely positive. It thus broadens both our understanding of the BBC and also offers new insights into women’s working lives in the 1920s and 1930s. 3 Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of countless people. First and foremost, I would like to thank Sally Alexander whose constant reassurance and enthusiasm for the project kept me going. Sally pushed me to places I had no idea I could reach, without her guidance and confidence in me, this thesis would never have happened. Also at Goldsmiths, I would like to thank Helen Jones and Vivienne Richmond, Vivienne in particular offered valuable support and motivation. Professor Angela John has also helped and encouraged me. I would also like to thank my Editor at Woman’s Hour , Jill Burridge, for backing me through six long years, enabling me to take extended leave and forgiving my mood swings after stressful weekends at the computer. All my colleagues at Woman’s Hour have been hugely supportive. I was also supported and motivated by a group of women I came to know as a result of my studies. All can now write PhD or MPhil after their names. Judy Faraday and Valerie Johnson I met through the Business Archives Council, our many stimulating and sociable evenings together sustained and nurtured me. Meeting Kristin Skoog at Westminster University was a life-line, our shared love of early BBC women was invaluable. Helen Glew, Helen McCarthy and Fiona Hackney offered encouragement and hope. The staff at the BBC Written Archives Centre were also pivotal to the success of my research. So much of this thesis is based on BBC documents and I spent countless days at the WAC going through scores of files. In particular I would like to thank Erin O’Neill and Louise North for putting up with my endless complicated requests, Jacquie Kavanagh for her interest and support and Marian Fallon for her constant welcome. I would also like to thank Robert Seatter, Head of History at the BBC, for his enthusiastic backing. 4 Two women have been especially important, Dorothy Torry and Juliet Nicolson. Dorothy Torry, now in her mid nineties, worked for the BBC from 1936. Her memories of the Corporation and her time with Reith provided a priceless insight into the early workings of the BBC. Juliet Nicolson trusted me enough to lend me the extraordinary letters her grandmother Vita Sackville-West, had been sent by Hilda Matheson. The two box files have sat on my bookshelf for many months, a constant reminder of Hilda’s genuine passion and love for both Vita and the BBC. Many thanks also to my dear friends Harriet Gaze and Deborah Friedland for their constant interest. Debbie spent many nights copy-editing the thesis for me, for which I am truly grateful. Above all, I must thank my long-suffering family. My daughters Louise and Emma, both now at university, have always been proud of me – thank you Louise for letting me take over your room! My son Corin has grown from a small boy to a young man in the time it has taken me to complete. Most thanks, though, to my husband David for always believing in me. Thank you all. 5 Table of Contents Title Page 1 Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Table of Contents 6 Table of Illustrations 8 Glossary 10 Introduction 11 Chapter One: “… a democracy of young pioneers…” The BBC as a Place to Work 39 Chapter Two: “Could she Rise from the Ranks?” Waged Women at the BBC 79 Chapter Three: “… Only an exceptional woman…” Married Women and Work at the BBC 129 Chapter Four: “New and Important Careers…” Salaried Women at the BBC 183 Chapter Five: “Women who Rule at the BBC” Three Directors 235 Conclusion 283 6 Appendix One: Short Biographies 293 Appendix Two: Control Board 1924-1929 300 Appendix Three: Grades and Wages Weekly-Paid 301 Appendix Four: Marriage Bar Statement 302 Appendix Five: BBC Women who Earned £500 or More 303 Bibliography 304 7 Table of Illustrations Fig. 1.1 Cecil Dixon playing piano for an audition, Savoy Hill, c.1927 28 Fig. 1.2 BBC Amateur Dramatics Club Chorus, Savoy Hill, c.1930 28 Fig. 2.1 Is There a BBC Type of Beauty? Ariel, December 1937 68 Fig. 2.2 Faces You Should Know: Nine Secretaries, Ariel , 68 October 1937 Fig. 3.1 Miss Freeman, Women’s Staff Supervisor, Broadcasting 86 House, c.1934 Fig. 3.2 General Office, Broadcasting House, c.1932 86 Fig. 4.1 Miss Gibson, Duplicating Operator, Broadcasting House, 108 Ariel , April 1938 Fig. 4.2 Telephonists, with Mrs Rouse, Supervisor, Broadcasting 108 House, c.1937 Fig. 5.1 Charwomen leaving Broadcasting House, c.1934 119 Fig. 5.2 Catering Department, Broadcasting House, c.1932 119 Fig. 6.1 Olive Shapley, Northern Children’s Hour Organiser, c.1938 211 Fig. 6.2 Ruth Field, Midland Children’s Hour Organiser, c.1938 211 Fig. 7.1 Hilda Prance, Advertising Department, c.1933 214 8 Fig. 7.2 Mrs Carvell, Advertising Department, c.1933 214 Fig. 7.3 Miss Cheseldine, Advertising Department, c.1938 214 Fig. 8.1 Ella Fitzgerald, Talks Assistant, c.1930 217 Fig. 8.2 Elise Sprott, Talks Assistant, c.1930 217 Fig. 8.3 Margery Wace, Talks Assistant, c.1934 217 Fig. 8.4 Janet Quigley, Talks Assistant, c.1934 217 Fig. 9.1 Mary Somerville, Director of School Broadcasting, c.1933 236 Fig. 9.2 Hilda Matheson, Director of Talks, c.1929 236 Fig. 9.3 Isa Benzie, Foreign Director, c.1936 236 Fig 10: ‘My BBC Diary’; by Mary Somerville, Radio Pictorial , 251 October 11th 1935 9 Glossary AWKS – Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries CCSB – Central Council for School Broadcasting DG – Director General EEO – Engineering Establishment Officer GO – General Office GPO – General Post Office LTS – London Telephone Exchange NFWI – National Federation of Women’s Institutes NUCAW - National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers NUSEC – National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship PBX – Private Branch Exchange WAC – Written Archives Centre WEF – Women’s Employment Federation WSA – Women’s Staff Administrator (Initially, this BBC position was designated Women’s Staff Supervisor, but I have chosen to use WSA throughout, to avoid confusion) 10 Introduction This thesis is the outcome of a fascination with women who worked in the BBC stretching back more than twenty years. In 1990, The Women’s Press/Livewire published Firsts: British Women Achievers, a book I’d written for teenagers. The book was a labour of love for me, written in snatched moments away from my day-job as a BBC researcher and during my first pregnancy. In Firsts I introduced readers to Hilda Matheson, the first woman Head of Department at the BBC in 1926 and Mary Somerville, the first woman radio producer in 1925 - two women who have come to dominate my PhD research. On both counts it turns out I was wrong: Hilda Matheson’s five year tenure as Director of Talks commenced in 1927 while Mary Somerville was preceded by two doughty female programme makers, Ella Fitzgerald and Elise Sprott. So little was then known about BBC women that these were easy mistakes to make. In 1993, I joined Woman’s Hour as a producer, where I was able to indulge my passion for women’s history overseeing features, interviews and discussions about every conceivable aspect of women’s past lives. Imagine my pleasure when, in 2000, I was handed a letter from Michael Carney, informing the programme that he had written a biography of Hilda Matheson, the perfect excuse for a biographical feature about her. Carney’s book included snippets from love letters that Matheson had written to Vita Sackville-West, with whom she’d had a love affair during her time at the BBC.