Working-class Girls in Nineteenth-century England Life, Work and Schooling Meg Gomersall WORKING-CLASS GIRLS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND This page intentionally left blank Working-class Girls in Nineteenth-century England Life, Work and Schooling Meg Gomersall Consultant Editor: Jo Campling First published in Great Britain 1997 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-62201-8 ISBN 978-0-230-37537-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230375376 First published in the United States of America 1997 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork,N.Y.10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12970-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gomersall, Meg. Working-class girls in nineteenth-century England: life, work and schooling 1 Meg Gomersall. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-12970-5 (cloth) I. Girls-England-History-19th century. 2. Women-Education -England-History-19th century. 3. Working class families- -England-History-19th century. I. Title. HQ1229.G66 1996 305.4'0942-<1c20 95-51280 CIP © Meg Gomersall 1997 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 432 1 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 Contents List of Tables vii Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 Patriarchy Challenged? Women and Work in Nineteenth-century Industrial Lancashire 8 The early stages of industrialisation 8 The Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844 13 Towards consensus 17 Women's views 22 Conclusions 27 2 Women's Work in Agricultural Production: Nineteenth-century Norfolk and Suffolk 30 The 1834 Poor Law 34 Towards consensus? 36 Conclusions 42 3 Schooling for Social Control? The Early Nineteenth Century 45 The purposes and provisions of schooling 45 Popular views on girls' schooling 48 Working-class views 50 Access to schooling and education 54 Conclusions 60 4 Religion, Reading and Really Useful Knowledge 62 Curriculum development 65 Consumer demand 68 Experiences and achievements 71 Conclusions 75 5 An Education of Principle: the Later Nineteenth Century 78 Working-class views 86 State policies 91 Access to schooling 92 Conclusions 98 v VI Contents 6 Schooling for Domesticity? The Later Nineteenth Century 100 Curriculum practices 100 Standards of attainment 108 The 'deficiencies' of schooling 114 Conclusions 121 7 What a Woman Knows: the Significance of Education in the Lives of Working-class Women 123 Industrial capitalism, class struggle and patriarchy in nineteenth-century Lancashire 125 Class alienation and patriarchy in rural Norfolk and Suffolk 128 Schooling and education 130 8 From the Past to the Present 138 From private to public patriarchy 139 Schooling, education and the reproduction of class and gender 143 Future prospects in schooling? 148 Notes 151 Bibliography 170 List of Tables 3.1 Average number of children enrolled at Baldwin's Gardens School, 1812-32 55 3.2 Estimated enrolment at day school, UK, 1833 59 4.1 Gender differences in standards of achievement in the central National schools, 1829 73 6.1 Gender differences in standards of achievement in workhouse schools, 1848-49 103 6.2 Gender differences in curriculum in the later 1850s in public schools in the UK 109 6.3 Regional and gender differences in levels of illiteracy, Lancashire, Norfolk and Suffolk, 1839-85 120 vii Acknowledgements My mother was an intelligent girl who grew up in rural Suffolk in the 1930s. She passed what was then known as the scholarship examination and, had she been allowed to attend grammar school, she would have enjoyed an extended academic education and may even have gone on to attend university. Unfortunately, my grandfather thought that a grammar school education was wasted on a girl, who after all would only be a housewife. Finishing elementary school at the earliest possible leaving age, she became a domestic servant, a job which was still the main occu pational destination for working-class country girls in the region. She did not remain a servant for long and her story of being dismissed for eating the master's dinner was one I always cherished, but though she eventually achieved a responsible post in the Civil Service and gained some qualifications through study at evening classes, she always saw her limited schooling as a major deprivation. All-age elementary schools such as the one my mother attended disap peared after the 1944 Education Act and my brother and I both went to state grammar schools at the age of 11. My father's ill health meant that money was tight but my mother insisted that I should stay on at school and have the chance to go to college. Thanks to the state education sytem and my mother's encouragement, I did achieve this goal. But, rather than the glitter ing career (and marriage to a middle-class man with good prospects) that my mother thought my university education would bring me, I became a teacher. This was because by the time I got my degree I had a young family and needed ajob that could be 'fitted in' around my domestic commitments. Despite my superior educational opportunities, my adult life became very similar to my mother's. I had a better job in terms of status and earnings, but, like her, I was employed in a traditional area of 'women's work' and, like her, spent most of my 'leisure' time cooking, cleaning, washing and all the other thousand and one things that women do. All these experiences have informed the research that led to this book. It took me many years to complete in between the demands of full-time work and home and family and the practical and moral support of my husband Tom has always been important. And, though my son's domestic skills may have been encouraged more by his dissatisfaction with the quality of my ironing than the persuasive powers of my feminist beliefs, he deserves particular thanks for keeping the house going when I was working away from home. I also owe special thanks to Richard Aldrich at viii Acknowledgements IX London University Institute of Education. He supervised the Ph.D. thesis from which this book evolved and managed to combine patience with rig orous and constructive criticism, when long stretches of silence were fol lowed by a mass of often only half-digested material from me. His belief in my capabilities was also a great support when I despaired of ever finishing the work. And finally, lowe thanks to Nathan, who let me have a computer on long-term loan when mine crashed and only asked for this acknowledgement in payment. So thanks Nathan.