This Working-Day World

Originally published in 1994, This Working-Day World is lively collection of essays presenting a social, political and cultural view of British women's lives in the period 1914-45. The volume describes women's activities in many different areas, ranging from the weekly wash to the rescue of child refugees. Each essay, from an international list of contributors, is based on new research which will complement existing studies in a range of disciplines by adding information on, among other topics, women's teacher training colleges, and women in the BBC, in medical laboratories and in Art schools. The book does not, however, idealise women: the militarism and racism of the period infected women too, and this is revealed in the account of women in the British Union of Fascists, and the analysis of the Pankhursts' merging of patriotism and gender issues. Through studies and personal accounts, This Working-Day World reveals past issues that are still pertinent to debates in today's society. As we read the chapter on the recently discovered Diary of Doreen Bates which outlines possibly the first female civil servant campaign for rights as a single mother, we hear echoes of issues being discussed today. Indeed, as we approach the end of the century it is a good moment to look back and re-evaluate areas and degrees of progress - or the reverse - in society, and in British women's lives in particular. With its unusual photographs, this accessible and informative collection provides a rich resource for students in twentieth century social and cultural history, and women's studies courses, and an enlightening volume for general readers.

Sybil Oldfield

List of Illustrations, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Section I: Social History, 1. The Weekly Wash, 2. A 'Trade Union for Married Women': The Women's Co-operative Guild 1914-1920, 3. The Women's Institute Movement - The Acceptable Face of Feminism?, 4. A Woman's Right to Work? The Role of Women in the Unemployed Movement Between the Wars, 5. The Culture of Femininity in Women's Teacher Training Colleges 1914-1945, 6. The Diary of Doreen Bates: Single Parenthood and the Civil Service, Section II: Political History, 7. Gendering Patriotism: Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and World War One, 8. England's Cassandras in World War One, 9. Women in the British Union of Fascists, 1932-1940, 10. British Feminists and Anti-Fascism in the 1930s, 11. Working with the 'Kindertransports', 12. An Austrian Refugee in Wartime Manchester, Section III: Cultural History, 13. 'A Fair Field and No Favour': Women Artists Working in Britain Between the Wars, 14. British Women Surrealists - Deviants from Deviance?, 15. Hilda Matheson and the BBC, 1926-1940, 16. 'Nothing is Impracticable for a Single, Middle-Aged Woman with an Income of her Own': The Spinster in Women's Fiction of the 1920s, 17. Chloe, Olivia, Isabel, Letitia, Harriette, Honour, and Many More: Women in Medicine and Biomedical Science 1914-1945, Notes on Contributors, Appendix: Archive Resources for Research on 20th Century British Women, Index.