Family

Background

Programmes 2 (FAMILY) and 3 (WORK) in the HISTORY IN ACTION series 'WOMEN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY' pick up the central themes of:

• the dual role of woman as carer / reproducer within the home and as worker / producer outside the home;
• the use of media, particularly film, to both reflect and reinforce attitudes towards and beliefs about the role of women through the twentieth century.

It is important, therefore, to use both programmes and to focus on the relationship between them. It is only by focusing on both aspects of women's roles that their experiences can be understood.

Propaganda in Peace Time

As was shown in Programme 1: WAR, Britain used propaganda very effectively during both world wars. After 1945, however, the use of propaganda did not stop – through the media, it became an effective method of social control. During the 1950s the population was seen as particularly open to the transmission of ideas and, in particular, to advertising as consumers. A significant amount of this peace time propaganda was directed at women within families and formed an important part of the socialisation process being commented on by feminists such as Simone de Beauvoir. For example,

Extract 10:

Persil (1959)

This advertisement for Persil is selling more than a washing powder. It contains powerful messages about the ideal mother and housewife as conceived by the advertising company.

During the 1990s, more complex views of propaganda have emerged. The population is seen as less easy to influence than it was in the post war period. Sociologists continue to see the media as influential in controlling opinions and behaviour, however, they also stress the use of propaganda to reinforce attitudes as well as to create them. In other words, propaganda is as much a result of societies' attitudes as it is a cause of them.

What were the attitudes towards the role of women within the family in the post war and 1950s period?

When the war ended in 1945, peace and leisure were key aspirations (hopes) of British people. The family was seen as a crucial institution in achieving these aspirations. If the family was healthy and harmonious then society would also be healthy and harmonious. There was a focus on family welfare and MPs like Ellen Wilkinson and Jennie Lee campaigned for better housing, education and health care to support the family. The greatest emphasis, however, was on personal responsibility Within this culture, the role of the mother and housewife was seen as crucial. Each individual mother was seen as personally responsible for the well being of their family.

Extract 6:

Why Study Home Economics? (1955)

This American film made to promote education in Home Economics (Domestic Science) reveals the view of society of the particular role of the woman within the family.

Child care theory in USA and the UK and research into the experiences of the evacuees in the Second World War reinforced these attitudes. According to the theory, mothers needed to be at home as full time carers for their children. Separation or 'maternal deprivation' was bad for children and 'problem families' were a result of the failings of the mother. John Bowlby's 'Maternal Care and Mental Health' (1953) and Dr Benjamin Spock's 'Baby and Child Care' (1947) both stressed the need for mothers to be at home. Most of the concern was directed at working class families and revealingly no-one at that time criticised the upper classes for sending young boys to boarding school and employing nannies.

At the same time there was an economic boom and a shortage of labour during the post war period. Recruiting campaigns were aimed at commonwealth countries (see HISTORY IN ACTION – RACE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY) and at women, including married women. Society wanted women to work at the same time as it wanted them at home. As in the two world wars, women were subject to contradictions in the different expectations that society had of them. Much of the infrastructure which had made it possible for mothers to work during the war disappeared, for example, most of the nurseries and crêches were closed down. The National Insurance Act of 1946 assumed that a woman was a dependent within the family and single parents were not eligible for benefits.

During the 1950s a far wider range of consumer goods became available as the economy boomed and technology developed. New items included tinned peas, formica, plastic cups and plates, dishwashers, mandarin oranges.

Extract 7:

Statistics showing number of households with domestic appliances in UK households in 1948. The table below shows similar information for 1952 and 1963.

% of Consumer Goods in UK Households 1952 & 1963

From 'Colour, Citizenship and British Society' by Nicholas Deakin in the 'Deakin Report' (1970)

Ideal Homes exhibitions became very popular, Four out of five women read magazines that focused on domestic life.

Both Extract 3 and Extract 5 shows some of the magazine covers and their headlines.

Within this context, family life became a popular topic for sitcoms. For example,

Extract 1:

Bewitched (1964)

Bewitched is an American situation comedy ('sitcom') about a suburban housewife who also happens to be a witch! She is 'average', 'normal' and surrounded by the new domestic appliances.

This type of programme dealt in stereotypes that were partial and limited. The reality of family life was often very different. Marilyn French's The Woman's Room revealed the unhappiness of the 'normal' housewife and a dependence on Valium by many. Hannah Gavron's The Captive Wife stressed the isolation and loneliness of a woman's life with young children and the problems she faced in moving around an environment which was not necessarily supportive of her. Dysfunctionalism within the family was often expressed in problem pages. For example:

Extract 11:

Sequence of shots of agony aunt headlines from women's magazines.

Interestingly there was a recognition in the 1950s that many housewives longed for freedom. For example:

Extract 12:

A Day of One's Own (1955)

In this film, made to promote British transport, there is recognition of the monotony of housework and the isolation of the housewife. It is important to notice the different purpose of this extract compared to others – it was made to promote transport not domestic life.

In The Sociology of Housework (1974) Ann Oakley pointed to the amount of housework that was done by women and not recognised by society. 'Housework' was not seen as 'work'. For example,

Extract 8:

A Touch of Magic (1961)

This American film was made to promote domestic appliances and gives the impression that housework is fun and restful!

The media tended to show images of middle class women with nuclear families. During this period, however, there was an increase in the number of single parents both due to divorce and illegitimacy. Illegitimacy increased from around 5% in 1945 to 25% by 1988. Divorce Law Reform in 1969 led to number of divorces increasing from 10% to 50% by the 1980s.

Guilt was a common emotion for many women. Many married women did continue to work and suffered guilt about being 'poor mothers' as a result. During the late 1970s when the number of working mothers with children under 5 years of age had risen, there was a shift in child care theory. Child psychology stressed the benefits to the family of socialisation and contact and made working mothers more acceptable. The double burden of housework and paid work continued, however, for most women. For example, in both extracts below there is evidence that separate roles were the norm within the family.

Extract 15:

Statistical information about amount of time spent on housework by men in UK in 1961.

And

Extract 16:

Butterflies (1978)

British situation comedy revealing attitudes towards both women and men's roles within the home.

The rise of teenage culture in the 1960s was another cause of guilt. RD Laing stressed the need for individual freedom and autonomy – it was often the mother who felt she had failed her teenage offspring. For example,

Extract 14:

My Teenage Daughter (1956)

These three clips from a British feature film focus on the tensions in family life caused by a teenage girl having different attitudes and values to her mother and the mother's guilty feelings about having failed.

During the late 1960s and 1970s the Women's Liberation campaign addressed the issues surrounding women's lives. They demanded equal pay, abortion, free contraception, 24-hour free nursery care. All these demands showed the need for women to gain control over their own lives. The campaign was part of a wider activism during that period which included Civil Rights in America (see RACE), Northern Ireland, student and hippy culture, and the American war in Vietnam. All of this activism was influenced in its methods by the suffragette campaign. Women were particularly active at local level setting up co-operatives, rape crisis centres, contraception clinics.

Not all of the demands of the campaign have been met and while there has been significant change in attitudes towards and experiences of women from the 1950s to today, there has also been much continuity. The three Oxo advertisements shown in the programme (Extracts 4,19 and 23) are an excellent indicator of change and its limitations. Similarly the house husband in

Extract 24:

House Husbands (1996)

reveals that by mid 1990s such role reversal was a suitable topic for TV documentary but such examples are exceptions. For instance:

Extract 21:

EastEnders (1994)

This extracts from TV soap EastEnders focuses on contemporary conflict between a young mother and father about their respective roles within their family and their respective responsibilities towards their children. Television tends to offer a grittier and more 'true to life' view of the world than cinema and this portrayal of family life is a more accurate representation of the majority experience than the extract from House Husbands.