Katherine Holden

Imaginary Widows: Spinsters, Marriage, and the “Lost Generation” in Britain after the Great War

This article argues that the status of spinster was associated with widowhood in the decades after the First World War in Britain, an association that is still active in our collective memory. Widely publicized census statistics suggesting that a whole generation of young men perished during the war led to the beliefs that an accompanying generation of women had lost lovers and fiancés, would be unable to marry, and were therefore deprived of the chance of leading “normal,” happy lives. Drawing upon a range of sources, including census statistics, fiction, poetry, autobiography, and oral history, the author examines the consequences of these beliefs for unmarried women in the context of a society that privileged marriage and nuclear families with male breadwinners and dependent wives over all other family formations.

‘Nature takes no notice of morality’: singleness and married love in interwar Britain1

Abstract This article draws attention to the dominance of marriage during the twentieth century and the strain this institution was, and still is, under. This is achieved by focusing upon the single as a problematic category in the context of interwar Britain through an examination of the writings of Marie Carmichael Stopes, one of the leading experts on marriage, and her single correspondents. There are clear contradictions in Stopess writings, which she was unable to acknowledge, between sex as a normal healthy appetite which it could be dangerous to suppress and the denial of a sex life to the single. These are shown to have had the potential to destabilise marriage as the only site of legitimate reproduction and sexual relations. Examining the differences between her advice to single men and women also exposes the gender divide in relation to the concept of sublimation and the difficulties inherent in the concept of substitute mother as a stable and coherent identity for the single woman. The article concludes by making links between the position of single men and women in the early twentieth century and today.

‘Showing Them How’: the cultural reproduction of ideas about spinsterhood in interwar England

This article uses psychoanalytic theory to suggest how ideas about spinsterhood were transmitted to young girls in mid-twentieth-century England, drawing upon childrens fiction and womens autobiographical writings. Spinster stereotypes were often invoked in these sources to portray unmarried women as ‘bad’ maternal substitutes in contrast to an exciting, adventurous masculine ‘other’. Spinsters in childrens fiction could also be ‘good’ mothers, offering a place of safety in the absence of the birth mother. Autobiographical stories bring out tensions in these representations. The maternal spinsters lack of a heterosexual partner raised concerns about emotional dependence on the child. Conversely, the presence of a woman partner provoked anxieties in some children and such partners often became the object of negative projections. These stories must be understood primarily as growing-up fantasies, reflecting childrens contradictory feelings about dependence on adults and wishes to be in control of their own lives.

Heartland and periphery: local, national and global perspectives on women's history

Abstract The articles in this special collection were first presented as papers at the Womens History Network Annual Conference, held at the University of Bath in September 2000. In selecting a theme for the conference, it seemed particularly important, at the start of a new millennium, to be as inclusive as possible and to reflect the most recent developments in the field of womens history. Conference participants were encouraged to question definitions of what is heartland and what is periphery in womens history and to explore the complex interrelationship between them at a local, national and international level.

Other people's children: Single women and residential childcare in mid-20th century England

Abstract This article compares the conditions of service for unmarried women working as house mothers in institutions run by a local authority and a voluntary association (the National Childrens Homes) in mid-20th-century England. It explores the different organizational structures within which these women were employed and examines tensions relating to class, gender, occupational and marital status and emotional labour. It concludes that there were conflicts between the high value that was attached to these womens perceived role as nurturers for Britains citizens of the future and their relatively low professional and economic status. In the case of the local authority, who believed married couples were most suitable for this kind of work, tensions were exacerbated by the womens marital status. Women working in this field often made a high level of personal investment and this was recognized in the National Children Homes, which offered workers a professional training, pay structure and retirement provision. However in both the case histories the hard physical and emotional labour performed by these women and the organizational structures within which their work was located put them under considerable strain, making it difficult for them always to offer the continuity of care the children needed.