Nakamura, Nobuko (1984) Women, work and war : industrial mobilisation and demobilisation, Coventry and Bolton, 1940-1946. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The emphasis in this thesis is on women's popular
attitudes towards the two processes of industrial mobilisation
and demobilisation which took place between 1940 and 1946.
Although the work includes a survey of the national picture of
those two processes, it concentrates on case studies in two towns
which exhibited different characteristics of women's employment,
Coventry and Bolton. This is done in an attempt to see if the
tradition of women's employment affected their attitudes towards
war work. In Coventry, the best sources of women's employment
were for single women. During the nineteen-thirties it was obvious
that the motor industry employed increasing numbers of women, but, again,
the unmarried. The economic participation rate in Coventry was slightly
lower than the national average. On the other hand, the cotton industry
in Bolton customarily had engaged married women as well as single women,
therefore, the women's economic participation rate was about 10 per cent.
higher than the national average. Local custom with regard to married
women's employment appears to have affected women's ideas About their
domestic responsibilities. Coventry women were more reserved and more
conscious of their domestic role. However, the comparison between the
two towns also brought out similarities as well as differences in women's
attitudes to industrial mobilisation. During demobilisation, the
similarities between Coventry and Bolton were more strongly marked.
The majority of women war workers had no intention of staying on in the
factory, in jobs which were still largely thought of as 'men's work'.
Most women thought that their well-being was dependent on men's secure
employment and high wages. They did not want to do anything to threaten
it. There seems to have been little antagonism between men and women
during the mobilisation and demobilisation period.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- England -- Coventry, World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- England -- Bolton, Industrial mobilization -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Women -- Employment -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century -- Case studies, Women -- Social conditions -- History -- 20th century
Official Date:	February 1984
Dates:	Date Event February 1984 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Social History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Mason, Tony, 1938-
Extent:	403 leaves
Language:	eng

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