Title: Gender, work and education in Britain in the 1950s /
Authors: Spencer, Stephanie, 1952-
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Women Great Britain Social conditions; Women Employment Great Britain History; Women Education Great Britain History; Sex role Great Britain History; Nineteen fifties.; Great Britain Social conditions
Abstract: "The Coronation in 1953 marked the start of a 'New Elizabethan Age'. Improvements in education together with an expanding economy ensured a range of employment opportunities for young people. Yet girls' full acceptance into the world of adult women was still confirmed by marriage and motherhood rather than a high powered career. Jobs might offer a 'stop-gap' between school and marriage. This book examines the gendered nature of the term 'career' during the 1950s through a focus on girls' school-leaving decisions. Employment education came from a variety of sources: the Youth Employment Officer, careers' advice in schools, women's and girls' magazines and the career novel. Using both written sources and interviews with women who left school in the 1950s it focuses on the relationship between individual 'women' and the overarching representation of 'Woman' in a decade which has been overlooked in favour of the swinging sixties."--Jacket.
Contents: The forgotten generation -- Women and the welfare state -- The welfare state and women's history -- The Beveridge Report -- Women's organisations' response to the Beveridge Report -- Mass observation -- Formal education and career choice -- 1950s sociological and educational research -- The Headmistresses' and the Assistant Headmistresses' Associations -- The Crowther Report -- Advice manuals and Women's employment -- 1950s sociological literature -- Youth Employment Service and advice manuals -- Women's employment -- The career novels -- List of career novels for girls -- Girl to Woman -- Beloning : the female "club" -- The woman you want to be -- A woman's work -- "My own front door" remembering the 1950s -- The interview process -- Family and school -- Work and marriage -- Constructing the self : looking back -- Statistical appendix.