Octavia Hill women housing managers in South Africa: femininity and urban government

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 459-481

  Robinson, Jennifer ^a  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FEMINISM; GENDER ROLE; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; HOUSING MANAGEMENT; URBAN POLITICS;

SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 0032446799     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1006/jhge.1998.0091     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. For discussion of the male administrators in African areas, see J. Robinson, Administrative strategies and political power in South Africa's black townships, 1930-1960, Urban Forum 2 (1992), 63-80
2. and J. Robinson, The Power of Apartheid: State, Power and Space in South African Cities (Oxford 1996). The possibility for deploying women housing managers in African areas was explicitly considered. See South African Archives Bureau, Pretoria (hereafter SABA) GES 361 509/4x: E.N. Thornton, Chairman, Central Housing Board (hereafter CHB) to Secretary for Public Health, 7/11/1938. Thornton claimed that the CHB "is generally in agreement with the principle involved (use of trained women supervisors), at any rate in so far as it applies to the larger schemes involving the rehousing of Europeans and Coloured families. Housing schemes for Natives fall under the native administrations of local authorities and while the Board believes that trained women supervisors could do very useful work in such administrations it has not been possible as yet for this course to be advocated owing to the scarcity of trained women available in South Africa". Marjorie Bakker subsequently wrote (in a letter to the Secretary for Health on 7/11/1952) that "[m]y Society... has further been advised that a course for trained Natives might be possible at the Jan H. Hofmeyer School of Social Work in Johannesburg. With the growth of Native townships the need for trained management is becoming increasingly obvious to officials in charge of Native affairs".
3. On negotiated forms of power in relation to Native Administrators see Robinson, The Power of Apartheid, Chapter Seven.
4. For an excellent account of feminist state theory, see R. Connell, The state, gender and sexual politics: theory and appraisal, Theory and Society 19 (1990), 507-544
5. . See also S. Franzway, D. Court and R. Connell, Staking a Claim (Sydney 1989)
6. and R. Pringle and S. Watson, 'Women's interests' and the post-structuralist state, in M. Barrett and A. Phillips (eds) Destabilising Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates (Oxford 1992), 53-73.
7. See F. Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century England (Oxford 1980);
8. J. Rendall, The Origins of Modern Feminism: Women in Britain, France and the United States 1780-1860 (London 1985);
9. G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship between Classes in Victorian Society (London 1984);
10. J. Lewis, Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England (London 1991).
11. See O. Hill, Our Common Land, and Other Short Essays (London 1877);
12. O. Hill, Idem., House Property and its Management (London 1921);
13. A. Power, Property Before People: The Management of Twentieth- Century Council Housing (London 1987).
14. M. Brion, Women in the Housing Service (London 1995).
15. Lewis, op. cit., 100.
16. Ibid., 102-4 for Beatrice Webb's experiences.
17. See Power, op cit.
18. and Brion, op. cit.
19. A. McClintock, Imperial Leather (London 1995).
20. Aged 26 at the time of her appointment, Hurst had trained as a woman house property manager and passed the professional examination of the Chartered Surveyor's Institute in England after studying at Oxford. She was the daughter of Sir Gerald Hurst, KC, MR See SABA, GES 361 509/4x: Margaret E. Hurst to Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937.
21. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Town Clerk, Cape Town, "Memo to Housing and Estates Committee", 19/7/1934.
22. Author's interview with Mrs Constance Corder (Grant), August 1996. In July 1933, Muriel Jones (Mrs Harold Jones) wrote to the Town Clerk of Cape Town and headed a deputation to suggest they employ an Octavia Hill Women Housing Manager. See Obituary, South African Institute of Housing Managers, June 1975. Jones was a member of the International Standing Committe for Housing on behalf of the National Council of Women of South Africa from 1938 to at least 1960, and was made a member of the National Housing Advisory Council in 1944. See NCW File, Correspondence, 1939-1949, University of Cape Town Archives: M. Treharne, 1948, History of the National Council of Women, 1909-1948.
23. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Alers Hankey to Miss B. Thrupp, Secretary, Society of Women Estate Managers, 12/1/1934.
24. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934. Mr Hankey was reported to have visited "large housing estates in the Boroughs of Westminster and Kensington which are conducted under this system". See Town Clerk Memo to Housing and Estates Committee 19/7/1934 in the same place. The Medical Officer of Health claimed experience of the Octavia Hill system of management on the Crown Estate at St Paneras, London. See CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Memo by the Medical Officer of Health, 16/6/1934.
25. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934.
26. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934.
27. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934.
28. CABA 3/PEZ 4/2/1/1/356: Council Agenda, 9/11/1938.
29. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934. The council managed to hire Hurst at £350 per annum rather than the £500 recommended by the Octavia Hill Society.
30. The differences were seldom discussed specifically, aside from language problems. In one note, though, an adviser to the Secretary for Public Health noted that "[t]he reports are instructive as to what is being done in Europe where conditions are so different to South Africa with its large non-European population". The difference, then, was one of race. See SABA GES 509/4x c: Handwritten note on letter to Secretary for Public Health from Secretary for Education, August 1937.
31. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Minutes of the Housing and Estates Committee, 7/5/1934.
32. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Alers Hankey to Miss B. Thrupp, Secretary, Society of Women Estate Managers, 12/1/1934.
33. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: B. Thrupp to Mr Alers Hankey, 16/1/1934, "Questions in connection with proposed appointment of an Octavia Hill trained Woman Housing Estate Manager at Capetown, South Africa, for guidance of applicants".
34. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Acting Minister of Public Health 13/2/1937, "Training of Housing Managers". The additional tasks of the Women Housing Managers included selection and moving of tenants, supervision of repairs, accounts, legal knowledge "and an ability to undertake propaganda and welfare work generally amongst tenants".
35. SABA GES 361 509/4x: ENT to Miss Trollip, 2/3/1939. Here we learn that "[t]here is at present a desperate shortage of trained manageresses in SA and successful students are practically assured of being engaged ... as soon as they are qualified".
36. Idem: Handwritten letter to Secretary for Finance, c. March 1937.
37. SABA TES 6868 F56/127: Secretary for Public Health to Secretary for Finance, 20/3/1937. Thornton wrote to Milne at the Ministry of Health in Johannesburg in 1937 (precise date unclear): "I had some difficulty in inducing the Treasury to agree to a modest £660 being placed on my estimates for the year for this purpose". See SABA GES 361 509/4x.
38. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Dr G. Laing, Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Johannesburg, 15/3/1937.
39. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Jones, 25/3/1937 which states "[t]he training scheme has been approved. I shall not be in a very strong position unless the City Council of Johannesburg agrees to appoint a second training centre".
40. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Minister for Public Health, 13/2/1937.
41. Idem: Thornton to Dr A.J. Milne, Medical Officer of Health, Johannesburg, June 1937 stated that "[w]e don't want these young women to think that they are qualified to take on a senior post themselves until they have worked satisfactorily under Supervision for two years after qualification". At first a year in each centre was planned but more flexibility was requested "as it is essential for the individual needs of each student to be considered". SABA GES 361 509/4a: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Secretary for Public Health, 20/11/1939.
42. Quoted in Brion, op cit., 36.
43. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Secretary for Public Health, 6/12/1938 and Brion, op. cit., 36.
44. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Secretary for Public Health, 7/11/1938
45. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to G. Laing (Johannesburg Deputy Minister of Health), 15/3/1937.
46. The management of the training scheme was transferred to the Central Housing Board when Thornton moved there from the Department of Health. He used many opportunities to convince municipalities that they should adopt the system. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Thornton to Secretary of Public Health, 7/11/1938.
47. Author's interview with Mrs Constance Corder (Grant), August 1996.
48. SABA GES 361 509/4x: "Memorandum on the arrangements for the training of women property managers, as suggested at a meeting between Miss Hurst and the Secretary for Public Health on 10 May 1937." Ibid., Thornton to Hurst, 29/7/37: "I was so sorry to hear that you had decided to terminate your appointment with the City Council. It seemed almost at first as if it was going to blow skyhigh the whole training scheme". Ibid., Thornton to Hurst, 11/10/1937: "I am very interested to hear that Cape Town has appointed Miss Crickmay. She will have to be very good indeed to be a worthy successor to you".
49. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Hurst to Thornton, 14/5/1937 which states "I am anxious for them to give full membership (possibly in a special class of 'overseas members') to holders of the South African certificate". The Society was also involved in assisting with recruiting and even interviewing prospective candidates, notably when Margaret Hurst herself was appointed. See CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Hankey to Miss B. Thrupp, Secretary, Society of Women Estate Managers, 12/1/1934. She later claimed that "[t]he work of the Housing Supervisor . . . has received recognition from the Society of Women Housing Estate Managers (the Octavia Hill Society overseas) as full 'Octavia Hill' management, and the training given has also been approved". See SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing Supervisor to the Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937. However in 1940, E.G. Stevens (the Cape Town Housing Supervisor) wrote to Thornton noting that "[i]t would be useless to expect them (the Society of Women Housing Managers) to sponsor certificates issued to students trained in South Africa, as at the present time our training is not recognised as sufficient to warrant the granting of students on completion of training of full membership of that Society. I may add here that I hope our training develops that this position may be altered". See SABA GES 359 509/4a 25-7-1940 and SABA GES 359 509/4a: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Secretary for Public Health, 6/6/1940. This noted that "[a] great deal of correspondence has taken place between the Society and the South African Managers with regard to the status of S[outh] Affrican] trained students. Owing to the difficulty experienced over collection of rent in this country, the Society is not prepared to recognise South African trainees as full members of the Society immediately on completion of their training. At the present time they become Associate Members, but it is confidently expected that as the work here develops full membership will be granted to them in the future".
50. SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing supervisor to the Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937 which states "[i]t has been necessary to do a good deal of Housing publicity and propaganda work. I have spoken on the subject on various occasions, and discussed the problems with Councillors and officials from Johannesburg, Pretoria, P[ort] E[lizabeth], East London, Durban, Benoni, Springs, Brakpan, Stellenbosch, Malmesbury, Worcester, Somerset West and Strand and Overseas, as well as with social workers and educationists in Cape Town".
51. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Secretary of Public Health, 24/11/1938. She left to return to England in 1941. See SABA GES 360 509/4d: Housing supervisors Report, 31/1/1944.
52. There was considerable opposition within the Cape Town Citizens' Housing League, where some members went to considerable lengths to ensure that a meeting to discuss the Octavia Hill Women Housing Managers was not attended by promoters of the scheme! See SABA GES 361 509/4x: "Memo to Citizens Housing League Utility Company re: Minutes of Special Meeting re: Property Management". Muriel Jones resigned in frustration from her position as Department of Public Health representative on the committee of the Housing League. See SABA GES 361 509/4x: Jones to Thornton, 14/7-1937 which states "[m]y heart is very much in housing as you know, and it is not without a great deal of thought that I have decided on this step. I shall continue to work through the National Council of Women and other sources though and, if I may, keep in touch with you regarding this scheme for training S[outh] A[frican] women". One Housing Manager appointed without qualifications was still attempting to redress the situation on her retirement. See SABA GES 360 509/4y: Mary Robertson to J.F.T. Naude, 22/8/1956.
53. This was seen as especially important by the housing committee in Pretoria, who even included the demand that knowledge of Afrikaans was required in their cable to the British Society of Women Housing Managers, Pall Mall, London. See TABA MPA 79/4/1, March 1938. In their reply to a British applicant, they noted that she had "little chance of being appointed as she would need a very good knowledge of Afrikaans as her work will principally be concerned with Afrikaans speaking people". See Ibid., Town Clerk, Pretoria to Katherine Streatfield, 11/3/1938.
54. NABA 3/DBN 4/1/3/2125: Town Clerk memorandum for special committee on housing, 10/1/1944.
55. NABA 3/DBN 4/1/3/2125: Town Clerk memorandum for special committee on housing, 10/1/1944.
56. NABA 3/DBN 4/1/3/2125: Prof H. Burrows to Town Clerk, Durban, 25/10/1944.
57. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Chairman, CHB to Secretary for Public Health, 8/11/1938 concerning a resolution passed at the South African National Council for Child Welfare regarding the appointment of trained women supervisors to manage Municipal subeconomic housing schemes. Here it was noted that "at the present time the opportunities for training afforded in Johannesburg to students transferred from C[ape] T[own] are not sufficiently satisfactory to warrant the transfer of any further students to that centre". See SABA GES 359 509/4a: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Secretary for Public Health, 20/11/1939.
58. SABA CES 359 509/4a: Stevens to Secretary for Public Health, 2/4/1940. Here Stevens noted that "it seems a pity that this experience should not be used for the benefit of the South African Training Scheme".
59. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Town Clerk, Port Elizabeth to Secretary for Public Health, 6/3/1939.
60. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Secretary for Public Health to Town Clerk, Port Elizabeth, 15/3/1939.
61. SABA GES 359 509/4a: Note from Thornton, 3/6/40.
62. SABA GES 360 509/4y: Mrs Cross (?), Honorary Secretary to the Society for Women Housing Managers to Secretary for Health, 5/11/1956, "Request re: possible acceptance of Coloured trainees for work on Coloured estates". This stated that "[t]he Cape Town City Council has for the past five years employed a number of Coloured Housing Assistants on their Coloured Housing Estates. They have worked under the supervision of Housing Managers on the various estates, doing the same work as the European Assistants and trainees. The Society feels that these women, where of suitable qualifications and temperament, should be permitted to undertake the training for Housing Management in order to qualify them for greater responsibility in work amongst their own people". Ibid., Note to Minister of Health, 16/11/1956 also suggests that "to train Coloureds would appear to be acceptable and in conformity with Government policy, particulary in view of the fact that they will be working amongst their own people".
63. Muriel Jones frequently corresponded with the government on behalf of the Association of Women of South Africa; Mrs Holland, a city councilor motivated strongly for Octavia Hill Women Housing managers in PE; and Mr Hankeys who arranged the appointment of the first Octavia Hill Woman Mananger for Cape Town noted that "details should only be settled after the arrival of the successful applicant and after there has been an opportunity of full discussion with those ladies who are most prominently identified with welfare work among the poor of Cape Town, such as Mrs Horwood, Mrs Harold Jones and Mrs Steyn etc." See CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: H. Alers Hankey to Town Clerk, CT 16/1/1934. Some women were in quite frequent contact with senior government officials. As Muriel Jones wrote to Dr Peter Allan: "It's a long time since I worried you about the Strawberry (?) Jam, and knowing how busy you are I would not trouble you now, but I am concerned about the shortage of Women Housing Managers in the Union". See SABA GES 360 509/4e: Jones to Allan, 16/8/1941.
64. Author interviews with Constance Corder (Grant) and Mavenwee Penberthy (Price), August 1996.
65. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Hurst to Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937.
66. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Hurst's memo on Octavia Hill Housing Management", 3/3/1937.
67. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Hurst's memo to the Johannesburg Housing Utility Company on "Octavia Hill Housing Management: Training Schemes for South Africa", no date. Although necessary, overseas study was also seen to compromise women's contact with South African conditions. Newcomers had to be prepared to familiarise themselves with these conditions.
68. SABA 360 509/4e: "Ejectments are regarded by the Managers as failure in the work of adjustment", 7/3/1951.
69. More could be written about 'friendship' as a way of describing the relationship between the managers and tenants. I take up the question of the nature of the personal relationships established and their implications for our understandings of the exercise of power in Robinson, The Power of Apartheid, chapter seven.
70. SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing supervisor to the Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937.
71. SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing supervisor to the Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937.
72. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/19: Housing and Estates Committee Minutes, 15/4/1935.
73. Cape Town City Council Records, H14/1/2/12: Housing Slum Clearance-Staff Supervision of Alicedale Township, Athlone. Uijs to Town Clerk, Cape Town, 12/10/1939 and 21/7/1940.
74. SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing supervisor to the Town Clerk, Cape Town, 1/7/1937.
75. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Hurst's memo on "Octavia Hill Housing Management", 3/3/1937.
76. CABA 3/PEZ 4/2/1/1/356: "Work of Octavia Hill Managers in Cape Town", 12/8/1938.
77. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: "Report from the Housing Estate Manager, Cape Town", 16/2/1935. An assistant was appointed in 1936.
78. See Ibid., Housing and Estates Committee Minutes, 12/9/1935).
79. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Hurst, 26/11/1934.
80. The Medical Officer of Health noted that "[i]t appears from the facts about Miss Hurst that she is of the calibre necessary for a post of such responsibility". CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Memo from Minister of Health, Cape Town, 16/6/1934.
81. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: "Report from the Housing Estate Manager, Cape Town", 16/2/1935.
82. The Chairman of the South African Women Housing Manager looked forward to the day when "my Society will eventually allow for the inclusion of male members as has been done in other countries". SABA GES 360 509/4e Chairman, South African Society of Women Housing Managers to Secretary for Health, 7/11/1952. Men were admitted as full members in 1963.
83. See J. Butler, The need for professional housing management in the South African context, South African Institute of Housing Management, November 1975.
84. Extract from Minutes of meeting of the Executive Committee held in Cape Town, 27 December 1947 in "Historical Review of the Development of the South African Institute of Housing" (document held by Institute of Housing in Cape Town).
85. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Housing and Estates Committee, 19/7/1934.
86. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Memo from Minister of Health, Cape Town, 16/6/1934.
87. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Jones to Thornton, 14/7/1937.
88. At a later date she wrote that "[y]ou will remember with what difficulty this system of management was introduced and maintained in the beginning and we should hate to run short of trained women just when the demand has been created by their proven good work". SABA GES 360 509/4d: Jones to Allan, 16/8/1941.
89. CABA 3/CT 1/4/9/1/1/18: Memo by Chairman of Housing and Estates Committee, 18/6/1934.
90. SABA GES 359 509/4a: Stevens to Thornton, 25/7/1940; CABA 3/PEZ 4/2/1/1/356: Report of Town Clerk, City Treasurer and Minister of Health (no date). The centrality of rent collection to the Octavia Hill system also caused some difficulties in Port Elizabeth when the City Treasurer refused to relinquish responsibility for the collection of rents in order to assist the recently appointed Miss Deverell meet the training requirements of the scheme. The Secretary for Public Health and Thornton both made strong recommendations that the City Treasurer give up his responsibility for at least one sub-economic township, making the point that experiences in England showed that arrears were substantially reduced by rent collection under the Octavia Hill scheme. SABA GES 359 509/4a: D. Ferguson, Minister of Health, Port Elizabeth to Thornton 15/8/1939; Thornton to Ferguson, 4/8/1939; Secretary for Public Health to Town Clerk, Port Elizabeth, 29/9/1939. Here it was noted that "[t]he Minister would greatly appreciate the Co-optation of the City Treasurer and the Medical Officer of Health to secure the object which the Department has in view".
91. Cape Town City Council Records H14/3/2/9: Staff Housing and Supervisor's Office, City Treasurer to Chairman and Members of the Housing Committee 12/3/1947 and Medical Officer of Health to Housing Committee, 31/3/1947. Here one learns that "[t]he housing managers do not undertake the collection of rent at Factreton or Retreat, where it is obviously unsafe for a woman to do so".
92. Cape Town City Council, Department of Health, DOH 26/1: Staff General, Housing Supervisor to City Treasurer, 30 April 1953.
93. CABA 3/CT AH 9-2-4: City Treasurer to Chairman and Members Housing and Slum Clearance Committee, 23/5/1940.
94. E. Rowland, South African Housing Management (Cape Town 1956), 11.
95. SABA GES 361 905/4x: Housing Supervisor to the Town Clerk, 1/7/1937.
96. SABA GES 360 509/4d, Mrs G.M. Harwood to Minister of Health and Housing, 26/4/1946 in which she wrote "[t]he trained managers in South Africa have recently formed themselves into a South African Branch of the Society of Women Housing Managers with the idea that as a professional body we shall be better able to assist in the development of proved methods of management and their adaptation to local conditions". On 18 June 1946, Harwood wrote to the Minister of Health and Housing that we "have striven very hard to maintain the standard of training and have been personally responsible for the carrying out of the work of training".
97. Women I have spoken to deny any overtly feminist politics, although there is some evidence of involvement by some of the Women Housing Managers in Cape Town with the white National Council of Women (NCW), amongst whose wide-ranging social aims was "to work for the removal of the legal, economic and social disabilities of women". See NCW Constitution and Standing Orders, 1946. Hurst attended the Dominions Conference hosted by the NCW in 1936 and her successor, Miss Crickmay, attended meetings of the Cape Town branch.
98. See NCW News, 3 (September 1939), 3.
99. SABA GES 361 509/4x: Town Clerk's Memo, East London, 27/3/1937.
100. Author interview with Constance Corder (Grant), August 1996.
101. SABA GES 359 509/4a: Town Clerk, Cape Town to Under-Secretary of Public Health, 26/7/1940.
102. SABA GES 359 509/4a: Town Clerk Johannesburg to Secretary of Public Health, 24/11/1939 (Thornton's note on the letter).
103. SABA GES 359 509/4: Johannesburg City Council Minutes, undated.
104. SABA GES 360 509/4e: J. McClear to Secretary for Health, 21/4/1950.
105. Cape Town City Council Records, H14/3/2/5: Staff Training Scheme for Women Housing Managers, Secretary for Education, Arts and Science (Examinations) to Town Clerk, Cape Town, 30/3/1963.
106. GES 361 509/4x: Minister of Health, Johannesburg to Secretary of Public Health, 2/7/1938 notes that "we are finding difficulty in obtaining local students and so far have been unable to obtain anyone suitable". He requested that the government grant be increased. Cape Town also subvented the grant from its own resources. The assessment of demand for women housing managers varied over time, depending on the expected expansion in public housing in the country. A University of the Witwatersrand staff member (name omitted from photocopy!) wrote to Dr A.J. Milne, Department of Public Health, Johannesburg, 23/6/1938: "I think that the smallness of the salary offered for the first two years of training will cause certain difficulties. The sum of £140 per annum will not attract distinguished graduates of the right qualifications and personality required for the extremely responsible job of housing manageress. I have talked with Mrs Pratt Nickels, Warden of Women Students, on this matter and she informs me that several women graduates of high quality have refused to consider the scheme, since they must earn enough to be completely independent. Few students at this University can afford to wait an additional two years after graduation before earning enough money to keep them. Also, I would feel happier if I could inform people that there was some guarantee to employment as a Housing Manageress at the end of their training period, if the trainees were pronounced suitable ... I believe that you will have great difficulty in finding trainees of the right kind unless more than £ 140 per annum is offered". See SABA GES 361 509/4x.
107. SABA GES 360 509/4e: "Memorandum on the Government Training Scheme for Women Housing Managers for Submission by the Department of Health to the Committee of Enquiry on the Training and Employment of Social Workers", 3/7/1948.
108. Mrs Joan Clear, comments on Butler in the South African Institute of Housing Managers, 1975, 22.
109. I draw this brief sketch of the women involved on the basis of numerous applications spread throughout the files I have been quoting.
110. On this see C. Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Cambridge 1988). Thanks to an anonymous referee for pointing this conclusion out to me.
111. H. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London 1993), 212;
112. L. Irigaray, Elemental Passions (New York 1992).