Women's work and family health: Evidence from the Staffordshire Potteries, 1890-1920

Continuity and Change

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 103-128

  Holdsworth, Clare ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FAMILY HEALTH; HEALTH IMPACT; HISTORICAL STUDY; INFANT MORTALITY; MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY; TWENTIETH CENTURY; WOMEN'S WORK;

UK, ENGLAND, STAFFORDSHIRE, POTTERIES;

EID: 0030733067     PISSN: 02684160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S026841609700283X     Document Type: Review

References (115)

1. For example see H. Jones, 'The perils and protection of infant life', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society LVII (1894), 1-98; G. Newman, Infant mortality, a social problem (London, 1906); and M. Tennant, 'Infant mortality', in G. M. Tuckwell ed., Women in industry (London, 1908).
2. For example see H. Jones, 'The perils and protection of infant life', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society LVII (1894), 1-98; G. Newman, Infant mortality, a social problem (London, 1906); and M. Tennant, 'Infant mortality', in G. M. Tuckwell ed., Women in industry (London, 1908).
3. For example see H. Jones, 'The perils and protection of infant life', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society LVII (1894), 1-98; G. Newman, Infant mortality, a social problem (London, 1906); and M. Tennant, 'Infant mortality', in G. M. Tuckwell ed., Women in industry (London, 1908).
4. T. Oliver, 'Lead and its compounds', in T. Oliver, ed., Dangerous trades: the historical, social and legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health, by a number of experts (London, 1902); B. Harrison, 'Suffer the working day: women in the "dangerous trades", 1880-1914', Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), 79-90; B. Harrison, '"Some of them gets lead poisoned": occupational lead exposure in women 1880-1914', Social History of Medicine 2 (1989), 79-90; C. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism: occupational health in the North Staffordshire pottery industry, 1890 to 1920' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1995).
5. T. Oliver, 'Lead and its compounds', in T. Oliver, ed., Dangerous trades: the historical, social and legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health, by a number of experts (London, 1902); B. Harrison, 'Suffer the working day: women in the "dangerous trades", 1880-1914', Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), 79-90; B. Harrison, '"Some of them gets lead poisoned": occupational lead exposure in women 1880-1914', Social History of Medicine 2 (1989), 79-90; C. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism: occupational health in the North Staffordshire pottery industry, 1890 to 1920' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1995).
6. T. Oliver, 'Lead and its compounds', in T. Oliver, ed., Dangerous trades: the historical, social and legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health, by a number of experts (London, 1902); B. Harrison, 'Suffer the working day: women in the "dangerous trades", 1880-1914', Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), 79-90; B. Harrison, '"Some of them gets lead poisoned": occupational lead exposure in women 1880-1914', Social History of Medicine 2 (1989), 79-90; C. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism: occupational health in the North Staffordshire pottery industry, 1890 to 1920' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1995).
7. T. Oliver, 'Lead and its compounds', in T. Oliver, ed., Dangerous trades: the historical, social and legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health, by a number of experts (London, 1902); B. Harrison, 'Suffer the working day: women in the "dangerous trades", 1880-1914', Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990), 79-90; B. Harrison, '"Some of them gets lead poisoned": occupational lead exposure in women 1880-1914', Social History of Medicine 2 (1989), 79-90; C. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism: occupational health in the North Staffordshire pottery industry, 1890 to 1920' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1995).
8. J. Lewis, The politics of motherhood: child and maternal welfare in England, 1890-1939 (London, 1980).
9. S. Rose, Limited livelihoods: gender and class in nineteenth-century England (London, 1991); S. Walby, Patriarchy at work: patriarchal and capitalist relations in employment (Cambridge, 1986).
10. S. Rose, Limited livelihoods: gender and class in nineteenth-century England (London, 1991); S. Walby, Patriarchy at work: patriarchal and capitalist relations in employment (Cambridge, 1986).
11. Lewis, The politics of motherhood; A. Davin, 'Imperialism and motherhood', History Workshop 5 (1978), 9-66. For contemporary debates see the Report of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Infantile Mortality (London, 1906).
12. Lewis, The politics of motherhood; A. Davin, 'Imperialism and motherhood', History Workshop 5 (1978), 9-66. For contemporary debates see the Report of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Infantile Mortality (London, 1906).
13. Lewis, The politics of motherhood; A. Davin, 'Imperialism and motherhood', History Workshop 5 (1978), 9-66. For contemporary debates see the Report of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Infantile Mortality (London, 1906).
14. 54 and 55 Vict. C. 75, 1891, An act to amend the law relating to factories and workshops (repealed 1901).
15. G. Reid, 'Report of proceedings of public medicine section of annual general meeting of British Medical Association', British Medical Journal II (1892), 275-8; 'Infant mortality and female labour in relation to factory legislation', Journal of the Sanitary Society 15 (1895) 502; and 'Infant mortality and factory labour', in Oliver ed., Dangerous trades.
16. G. Reid, 'Report of proceedings of public medicine section of annual general meeting of British Medical Association', British Medical Journal II (1892), 275-8; 'Infant mortality and female labour in relation to factory legislation', Journal of the Sanitary Society 15 (1895) 502; and 'Infant mortality and factory labour', in Oliver ed., Dangerous trades.
17. G. Reid, 'Report of proceedings of public medicine section of annual general meeting of British Medical Association', British Medical Journal II (1892), 275-8; 'Infant mortality and female labour in relation to factory legislation', Journal of the Sanitary Society 15 (1895) 502; and 'Infant mortality and factory labour', in Oliver ed., Dangerous trades.
18. Staffordshire County Council, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1891 (Stafford, 1892).
19. Ibid., 15.
20. Staffordshire County Council, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1902 (Stafford, 1903).
21. Reid,'Infant mortality and female labour', 502.
22. Ibid.
23. Parliamentary Bills Committee of the BMA, 'Deputation to the Home Secretary', British Medical Journal II (1894), 1135-9, 1136.
24. C. Collet, 'The collection and utilisation of official statistics bearing on the extent and effects of the industrial employment of women', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 61 (1898), 219-70.
25. Ibid., 232.
26. Ibid., 235-9.
27. Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, Volume III: Appendices, 1904 [Cd. 2186] XXXII, 655, Appendix XV.
28. Supplement to the 39th annual report of the Local Government Board, containing a report on infant and child mortality, 1910 [Cd. 5263] CCIX, 973.
29. City of Birmingham Health Department, Report on industrial employment of married women and infantile mortality (Birmingham, 1910).
30. Supplement to the 39th annual report of the Local Government Board, 57.
31. M. Llewelyn Davies, ed., Maternity: letters from working women (London, 1978).
32. ibid., 1-17.
33. Harrison,'"Some of them gets lead poisoned"'.
34. A. Newsholme, The last thirty years in public health: recollections and reflections of my official and post-official life (London, 1936), 213-14.
35. M. Hewitt, Wives and mothers in Victorian industry (London, 1958).
36. D. Graham, 'Female employment and infant mortality: some evidence from British towns, 1911, 1931 and 1951', Continuity and Change 9 (1994), 313-46.
37. Ibid., 329.
38. ibid., 333-8.
39. R. I. Woods, P. A. Watterson and J. H. Woodward, 'Infant mortality decline in England and Wales, 1861-1921, Parts I and II', Population Studies 42 and 43 (1988 and 1989), 343-66 and 113-32.
40. N. Williams and G. Mooney, 'Infant mortality in an "Age of Great Cities": London and the English provincial cities compared, c. 1840-1910', Continuity and Change 9 (1994), 185-212.
41. N. Williams and C. Galley, 'Urban-rural differentials in infant mortality in Victorian England', Population Studies 49 (1995), 401-20.
42. E. Garrett and A. Reid, 'Thinking of England and taking care: family building strategies and infant mortality in England and Wales, 1891-1911', International Journal of Population Geography 1 (1995), 69-102.
43. Ibid.
44. Lewis, The politics of motherhood, and C. Dyhouse, 'Working-class mothers and infant mortality, 1895-1914', Journal of Social History 12 (1978), 248-67.
45. Lewis, The politics of motherhood, and C. Dyhouse, 'Working-class mothers and infant mortality, 1895-1914', Journal of Social History 12 (1978), 248-67.
46. Dyhouse, 'Working-class mothers'.
47. For example see P. Evridge Hill, 'Invisible labours: mill work and motherhood in the American South', Social History of Medicine 9 (1996), 235-52. Evridge Hill identifies how female physicians in the United States failed to address the relationship between occupational ill health and family welfare, due to both their marginalized status and their commitment to a feminist ideology which recognized the empowering potential of their own professional status.
48. Up until 1910 the pottery towns were independent towns in their own right, and local government was administered by the Urban Districts of Fenton and Tunstall, the Borough Councils of Burslem, Longton and Stoke, and the County Borough of Hanley. The County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent was formed in 1910 following the Federation of the six towns.
49. R. Whipp, Patterns of labour: work and social change in the pottery industry (London, 1990), 17-24.
50. Census of England and Wales, 1901: County of Staffordshire (London, 1902), Table 35.
51. Ibid.
52. Census of England and Wales, 1901: General report (London, 1904), Table 31.
53. Census of England and Wales, 1901: County of Lancaster (London, 1902), Table 35.
54. Whipp, Patterns of labour, 44-54.
55. These findings are disputed by Dupree's analysis of census household schedules from the mid-nineteenth century and Sarsby's oral interviews with women born at the turn of the century, both of which found little evidence of family employment. Whipp argues that the practice of family employment was expedited by the extension of mechanization within the industry, which was intensified at the end of the nineteenth century. Dupree also establishes that the introduction of factory legislation to restrict children's hours resulted in an increase in women's employment rates. See M. Dupree, Family structure in the Staffordshire Potteries 1840-1880 (Oxford, 1995), and J. Sarsby, Missuses and mouldrunners: an oral history of women pottery workers at work and home (Milton Keynes, 1988), 8-27.
56. These findings are disputed by Dupree's analysis of census household schedules from the mid-nineteenth century and Sarsby's oral interviews with women born at the turn of the century, both of which found little evidence of family employment. Whipp argues that the practice of family employment was expedited by the extension of mechanization within the industry, which was intensified at the end of the nineteenth century. Dupree also establishes that the introduction of factory legislation to restrict children's hours resulted in an increase in women's employment rates. See M. Dupree, Family structure in the Staffordshire Potteries 1840-1880 (Oxford, 1995), and J. Sarsby, Missuses and mouldrunners: an oral history of women pottery workers at work and home (Milton Keynes, 1988), 8-27.
57. Whipp, Patterns of labour, 67.
58. Report of the Departmental Committee on the dangers attendant on the use of Lead and the dangers of injury to Health arising from Dust and other causes in the manufacture of Earthenware and China and in the Processes incidental thereto, including the making of lithographic transfers, Volume II: Appendices, 1910 [Cd. 5278], XXIX, 245, Appendix V.
59. P. Raffle, P. Adams, P. Baxter and W. Lee, eds., Hunter's diseases of occupations, 8th edition (London, 1994), 93-4.
60. A. Meiklejohn, 'The successful prevention of lead poisoning in the glazing of earthenware in the North Staffordshire Potteries ', British Journal of Industrial Medicine 20 (1963), 169-80.
61. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism', 193-4.
62. W. N. Rom, 'Effects of lead on the female and reproduction: a review', Mt Sinai Journal of Medicine 46 (1975), 542-52.
63. R. Lane, 'The role of the punctate basophilia in the control of industrial plumbism', Journal of Industrial Hygiene 13 (1931).
64. Raffle et al. eds., Hunter's diseases, 96-8.
65. Ibid., 94.
66. A. Meiklejohn, 'The successful prevention of silicosis among china biscuit workers in the North Staffordshire Potteries', British Journal of Industrial Medicine 20 (1963), 169-80.
67. Report of the Departmental Committee on the dangers attendant on the use of Lead, Volume II, Appendix XXX.
68. Williams and Mooney, 'Infant mortality in an "Age of Great Cities'", 191.
69. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism', 139.
70. Woods, Watterson and Woodward, 'Infant mortality decline'; Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism', Chapter 3.
71. Graham,'Female employment and infant mortality', 315-17.
72. Holdsworth, 'Potters' rot and plumbism', 73-8. Neonatal rates are higher in Stoke than any of the other towns, yet Stoke had the smallest percentage of women employed.
73. Ibid. Biometric analyses of the age of infant death to calculate endogenous mortality rates give improbably low estimates throughout the region. Though the calculations are slightly more robust for the data collected for Stoke-on-Trent after Federation the analysis suggests either chronic mis-reporting of age of infant death or under-reporting of infant deaths. Alternatively, the low level of endogenous mortality may be associated with a high level of foetal loss.
74. Ibid.
75. Raffle et al. eds., Hunter's diseases, 729.
76. Longton Borough Council, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1902 (Longton, 1903).
77. For example, Burslem Borough Council challenged Reid to withdraw his comments on potters (Burslem Borough Council draft minute book 1894-1902, Hanley Reference Library, Stoke-on-Trent, 5 November 1894); while the Trades and Labour Council was slightly more sympathetic (Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 December 1894).
78. For example, Burslem Borough Council challenged Reid to withdraw his comments on potters (Burslem Borough Council draft minute book 1894-1902, Hanley Reference Library, Stoke-on-Trent, 5 November 1894); while the Trades and Labour Council was slightly more sympathetic (Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 December 1894).
79. Longton Borough Council, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1902 (Longton, 1903).
80. Leader article, Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 December 1910.
81. Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 December 1910.
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid.
84. H. Marland, 'A pioneer in infant welfare: the Huddersfield scheme 1903-1920', Social History of Medicine 6 (1993), 25-50.
85. Staffordshire Sentinel, 30 January 1911.
86. Ibid.
87. County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1911 (Longton, 1912), 51-2.
88. County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1912 (Longton, 1913), 57.
89. Ibid., 52.
90. County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1913, 54.
91. Whipp, Patterns of labour, 71-81. Szreter also argues that the practice of family employment, the proximity of work and home and flexibility in working-time contributed to the high fertility rate in the Potteries at the end of the twentieth century; see S. Szreter, Fertility, class and gender in Britain, 1860-1940 (Cambridge, 1996), 496-8.
92. Whipp, Patterns of labour, 71-81. Szreter also argues that the practice of family employment, the proximity of work and home and flexibility in working-time contributed to the high fertility rate in the Potteries at the end of the twentieth century; see S. Szreter, Fertility, class and gender in Britain, 1860-1940 (Cambridge, 1996), 496-8.
93. Death was the most common cause of family breakdown in the Potteries and of applications for Poor Law relief. In 1875-1876, 40 per cent of paupers in receipt of outdoor relief were widows with dependent children, in contrast to 25 per cent of recipients in England and Wales (Dupree, Family structure, 336).
94. Holdsworth, 'Potters rot and plumbism', 69-81.
95. Their rationale also reflects that of public health officials in Huddersfield. Savage demonstrates that in towns with greater equality between males and female wages there was more support for the collective provision of services; see M. Savage, The dynamics of working class politics (Cambridge, 1987). His argument is developed by Szreter in the context of infant welfare provision; see Szreter, Fertility, class and gender, 510-12.
96. Their rationale also reflects that of public health officials in Huddersfield. Savage demonstrates that in towns with greater equality between males and female wages there was more support for the collective provision of services; see M. Savage, The dynamics of working class politics (Cambridge, 1987). His argument is developed by Szreter in the context of infant welfare provision; see Szreter, Fertility, class and gender, 510-12.
97. County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1911 (Longton, 1912).
98. Longton Borough Council, Lady Sanitary Inspector's report 1909 (Longton, 1910), 23.
99. Garrett and Reid, 'Thinking of England and taking care'.
100. Garrett and Reid, utilizing anonymized data from the 1911 Census for Hanley enumeration district have established that the majority of mothers did not go out to work; see E. Garrett and A. Reid, 'Satanic mills, pleasant lands: spatial variation in women's work, fertility and infant mortality as viewed from the 1911 census', Historical Research 67 (1994), 156-77. In the 1911 Census, which reported employment status for married and widowed mothers separately, 22 per cent of married women in the County Borough were employed; see Census of England and Wales 1911, Volume X: Occupations and industries, Part I (London, 1914).
101. Garrett and Reid, utilizing anonymized data from the 1911 Census for Hanley enumeration district have established that the majority of mothers did not go out to work; see E. Garrett and A. Reid, 'Satanic mills, pleasant lands: spatial variation in women's work, fertility and infant mortality as viewed from the 1911 census', Historical Research 67 (1994), 156-77. In the 1911 Census, which reported employment status for married and widowed mothers separately, 22 per cent of married women in the County Borough were employed; see Census of England and Wales 1911, Volume X: Occupations and industries, Part I (London, 1914).
102. These rates only approximate to infant mortality rates, as 90 per cent of newborns were visited, in contrast to 60 per cent of all homes of dead infants in 1911.
103. The use of bottles, which could be contaminated, and cow's milk, especially condensed milk, increased the risk of infection and infantile diarrhea. There was also variation in the quality of milk provided - whether it was pasteurised was particularly important. (See M. W. Beaver, 'Population, infant mortality and milk', Population Studies 27 (1973), 243-54.)
104. Sarsby, Missuses and mouldrunners, 42.
105. County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent, Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health, 1912, 52.
106. Annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops, 1897, 1898 [Cd. 8965] XIV, 1, 100-2.
107. Ibid., 101.
108. Ibid.
109. The Committee was appointed by the Home Office to address the possibility of extending existing health and safety regulations in the industry. Previous special rules for earthenware and china had been issued in 1894, 1898 and 1904. The Committee's recommendations were implemented in the 1913 Special Rules.
110. Report of the Departmental Committee on the dangers attendant on the use of Lead, Volume II: Appendix LII.
111. Ibid., Appendix XXVII.
112. Report of the Departmental Committee on the dangers attendant on the use of Lead, Volume I: Report, 1910 [Cd. 5219] XXIX, 85, 113-15.
113. Ibid.
114. Williams and Galley,'Urban-rural differentials in infant mortality'.
115. Report by Judge Ruegg, on the Draft Regulations for the manufacture and decoration of pottery, and any Process included thereto, with a copy of the regulations in the form suggested for Promulgation, 1912-1913 [Cd. 6568], XXVI, 59.