Service clubs, citizenship and equality: Gender relations and middle-class associations in britain between the wars

Historical Research

Volumn 81, Issue 213, 2008, Pages 531-552

  McCarthy, Helen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57749132315     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2007.00433.x     Document Type: Review

References (86)

1. For a useful overview, see A. Bingham, 'An era of domesticity? Histories of women and gender in interwar Britain', Cultural and Social History, i (2004). 225-33
2. P. Thane, 'What difference did the vote make? Women in public and private life in Britain since 1918
3. quot;' K. Boyd. 'Knowing your place: the tensions of manliness in boys' story papers, 1918-39', in Manful Assertions: Masculinities in Britain since 1800, ed. J. Tosh and M. Roper (1991), pp. 145-67
4. R. McKibbin. Classes and Cultures: England 1918-51 (Oxford. 1998)
5. L. Davidoff and C. Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780- 1850 (rev. edn.. 2002)
6. For Rotary and Round Table, see H. Barry-King, Round Table: the Search for Fellowship, 1927-77 (1977) [accessed 2 March 2007]
7. J. Haywood, The History of Soroptimist International (Cambridge, 1995)
8. J. M. Robinson, Circle: the Story qf N.A.L.C. (Keighley, 1974)
9. For the Association for Education in Citizenship, see A. Beach, 'The Labour party and the idea of citizenship, c. 1931-1960' (unpublished University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1996). p. 254; for the Women Citizens' Association, see Beaumont, 'Citizens not feminists'; for C.O.P.E.C.. see The Proceedings of C.O.P.E.C.: being a Report of the Meetings of the Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship (1924)
10. For the history of the R.I.B.I.. see Shelley Nicoll and Levy
11. For the history of the R.T.B.I., see Barty-King and Creasey
12. R.I.B.I.. Synopsis of Rotary (1926), p. 11
13. C. H. Dewey. 'What Rotary means to me'. Rotary Wheel, i (July 1915). 22
14. C. White. 'The ideals and practice of Rotary', Rotary Wheel, vi (Dec. 1920). 355
15. Cited in Editorial, Table News and Views, viii (Winter 1937), 2
16. M. Mulvey Roberts, 'Pleasures engendered by gender: homosociality and the club', in Pleasure in the 18th Century, ed. R. Porter and M. Mulvey Roberts (1996), pp. 48-76; Gunn, ch. 4
17. C. Mander, 'On friendship', Rotary Wheel, xv (Nov. 1929). 413; see also discussion in the Sept. and Oct. 1929 issues of Rotary Wheel
18. Rotary Wheel, ii (Sept. 1916), 171
19. Rotary and freemasonry', in Rotary Wheel, ix (Feb. 1923), 38
20. Rotary and freemasonry', in Rotary Wheel, ix (Feb. 1923). 38
21. Table News and Views, v (July 1933), 13
22. G. W. Clarke, 'Some thoughts on Rotary". Rotary Wheel, iv 0an. 1918), 9
23. Table News and Views, ix (Nov. 1937). 10
24. Mangan and Walvin; A. Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism between the Wars (1991)
25. What Rotary means to me', Rotary Wheel, i (Oct. 1915), 19
26. P. Thomason. 'Rotary friendship', Rotary Wheel, ix (Sept, 1923). 232
27. Cited by Levy. p. 121
28. Gunn. p. 92
29. Rotary Wheel, xvii (Nov. 1931), 351
30. Table News and Views, x (Nov. 1928), 17
31. T. S. Augrave. Leicester, 'A male protest'. Table News and Views, vii (Spring 1936). 5
32. Table News and Views, viii (Autumn 1936), 26
33. Table News and Views, ix (Autumn 1937). 31-2
34. Rotary Wlieel, xviii (Nov. 1932), 22
35. Rotary, x (Sept. 1924), 294 reproduces an article from the Manchester Evening Chronicle of 12 June 1924. (Note, Rotary Wheel was known as Rotary between 1924 and 1926.)
36. Rotary Wheel, xiv (June 1928), 307
37. See M. Collins, Modern Love: an Intimate History of Men and Women in 20th-century Britain (2003). although he notes the difficulty of identifying a firm chronology for the model: Its beginnings have been dated to the 1950s, the 1920s, the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, even the Middle Ages' (p. 93)
38. McKibbin; S. Gunn and R. Bell, Middle Classes: their Rise and Sprawl (2003); C. Langhamer, Women's Leisure in England, 1920-60 (Manchester, 2000)
39. The ladies' letter'. Rotary Wheel, xv (Nov. 1929), 420
40. Letter reproduced in Rotary, x (Jan. 1924), 11
41. British Soroptimist, i (Aug. 1930), 114
42. M. Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (1985)
43. M. Pugh, The Tories and the People, 1880-1935 (Oxford. 1985)
44. E.g., the British Federation of University Women, the Women's Engineering Society, the women's sections of the three main political parties, and non-party associations such as the National Federation of Women's Institutes and the Townswomen's Guilds (see Beaumont, 'The women's movement'; Thane)
45. C. Smith-Rosenburg. 'The female world of love and ritual: relations between women in 19th-century America', Signs, i (1975), 1-29; E. Freedman 'Separatism as strategy: female institution building and American feminism 1870-1930', Feminist Studies, v (1979), 512-29; J. Lewis, Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England (Aldershot, 1991); Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of European Welfare States, 1880S-1950s, ed. P. Thane and G. Bock (1991); Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States, ed. S. Koven and S. Michel (1993)
46. Editorial, British Soroptimist, ix (Aug. 1938), 148
47. Do women understand all that men mean by fellowship?', Rotary Wheel, xiv (March 1928), 125. The author is likely to be Ethel Wood, the honorary secretary, who developed a similar argument about the power of women's organizations some years later in The Pilgrimage of Perseverance: an Account of Women's Organisations and what they have Achieved (National Council of Social Service, 1949)
48. K. Busfield. 'Group meeting of Yorkshire Soroptimist clubs. Oct. 20th and 21st'. British Soroptimist. v (Nov. 1934). 178
49. British Soroptimist. vi (May 1935), 67
50. C. Hamilton. The Englishwoman (1940), p. 33
51. Rotary Wheel, xviii (Nov. 1932). 22
52. Rotary Wlieel xxiii (Nov. 1937), 16
53. K. Michaelsen, '"Union is Strength": the Medical Women's Federation and the politics of professionalism. 1917-30', in Women and Work Culture: Britain c.1850-1950, ed. K. Cowman and L. A.Jackson (Aldershot, 2005), pp. 161-76; A. Oram, Women Teachers and Feminist Politics 1900-39 (Manchester. 1996)
54. Rotary, x (June 1924), 184
55. British Soroptimist, v (March 1934), 17
56. So much so that the presence of other women's clubs, such as Zonta and the British Federation of Business and Professional Women, was perceived as a threat (see the debate on club extension in Greater Manchester County Record Office (hereafter G.M.C.R.O.), G/SIG/ 1, acc 1795/1/1. Association of Venture Clubs minutes, 11 Jan. 1929; G.M.C.R.O., G/SIG/ 1, acc 1795/1/4, National Union of British Soroptimist Clubs minutes, 26 Oct. 1935; and G.M.C.R.O., G/SIG/I, acc 1795/3/16, annual conference minutes, 26 June 1937)
57. J. Lewis, Women in England, 1870-1950: Sexual Divisions and Social Change (Brighton, 1984), chs. 5, 6
58. The diplomatic and consular service in the civil service remained closed to women and protective legislation kept women out of certain industrial employments. For contemporary accounts of the changing position of employed women, see V. Brittain, Women's Work in Modern England (1928); Hamilton; D. W. Hughes, Careers for our Daughters (1936); G. Holmes, In Love with Life: a Pioneer Career Woman's Story (1944); and R. Strachey, Careers and Openings for Women: a Survey of Women's Employment and a Guide for those Seeking Work (1935)
59. Beaumont, 'Citizens not feminists', p. 415
60. British Soroptimist, ii (Aug. 1931), 130
61. British Soroptimist, v (Jan, 1935). 235
62. The Liverpool club ran a Careers Advisory Bureau which hosted talks for school-leavers and provided work experience placements with Soroptimists. The London and Glasgow clubs both established loan training funds offering financial assistance to women embarking upon courses of professional training (see British Soroptimist, i (Apr. 1930), 28; i (Nov. 1930), 180-1)
63. G.M.C.R.O., G/SIG/I, acc 1795/3/16, annual conference minutes. 26 June 1937, p. 3
64. S. K. Kent. Making Peace: the Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain (Princeton. NJ.. 1993)
65. Beaumont, 'The women's movement'; Thane
66. Rotary Wheel, xx (Feb. 1934). 22
67. Mrs. P. H. W. Almy, 'This freedom', British Soroptimist. iv (May 1933), 53
68. Thane; P. Graves. Labour Women: Women in British Working-Class Politics. 1918-39 (Cambridge, 1994)
69. J. Hinton, Women, Social Leadership and the Second World War: Continuities of Class (Oxford, 2002). pp. 2, 33. In 1932. Sheffield Inner Wheel reported that its members sat on the committees of the National Council of Women and the Women's Appeal Committee for the Royal Hospital Centenary Fund, while Brighton Inner Wheel had representatives on the committees of the Brighton Girls' Club and the Alexandra Hostel for Working Women (see Rotary Wheel, xviii (Aug. 1932), 21)
70. A point made by Constance Braithwaite in The Voluntary Citizen: an Enquiry into the Place of Philanthropy in the Community (1938), p. 57. For statistics relating to women holding elected office in local government, see M. Pugh. Women and the Women's Movement in Britain (2nd edn., Basingstoke, 2000), pp. 57-8
71. M. Brasnett, Voluntary Social Action: a History of the National Council of Social Service, 1919- 69 (1969)
72. R.I.B.I.. The Making of Local Social Surveys and the Function and Formation of Local Councils of Social Service: Summary of Proceedings of an Instructional Meeting (1932). pp. n. 19 (the meeting was held at Tavistock House. London WCI, on 28 Jan.)
73. Cited by Levy, p. no
74. Table News and Views, ix (Feb. 1938). 15
75. What is Rotary?'. Rotary Wheel, xxiv (Sept. 1938), II
76. Rotary Wheel, vi (Feb. 1920). 56
77. Rotary Wheel, vi (Feb. 1920), 60; vi (March 1920). 89
78. See Rotary Wheel, xxi (Apr. 1935), 2
79. British Soroptimist. viii (March 1937). 18
80. For the 'pessimist' school, see Kent; G. Brayton, Women Workers in the First World War (1989); D. Beddoe. Back to Home and Duty: Women between the Wars, 10,18-39 (!989); S. Jeffreys. The Spinster and her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930 (1985); B. Adelman. Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties: Flappers and Nymphs (Basingstoke, 1988); S. Rowbotham, Hidden from History: 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight against it (1973). For revisionist perspectives, see Thane; Beaumont. 'The women's movement'; Law; and Bingham
81. K. Cowman and L. A. Jackson, 'Introduction: middle-class women and professional identity'. Women's History Rev., xiv (2005), 165-80
82. Beaumont, 'The women's movement'
83. M. Roper. 'Recent books on masculinity: introduction', History Workshop Jour., xxix (1990). 184-6; J. Tosh, review of Mangan and Walvin. History Workshop Jour., xxix (1990), 187-8; J. Tosh and M. Roper. 'Introduction', in Tosh and Roper, Manful Assertions, pp. 1-24
84. Collins, ch. 3
85. Girlguiding U.K.' [accessed 2 March 2007]; 'The History of Grand Lodge' [accessed 2 March 2007]
86. One well-known anthropological attempt to do so is L. Tiger. Men in Groups (1969)