Read more
This book addresses the inter-linked lives and fortunes of children and women in the first two decades of the twentieth century in England. This was a time of shifts in thinking and practice about children's and women's status, lived lives and experiences. The book provides a detailed explanation of how children experienced home, neighbourhood and elementary school; as well as discussing the impact of the women's movement, namely its suffrage and socialist work. These two concerns are linked by the work women did about and for children. Essentially, the book explores childhood and womanhood; generation and gender; and socialism and feminism. Using existing studies on women's work, and autobiographies and interviews about childhood, Mayall argues that women played a large part in re-thinking childhood as a special period in life, and children as participants in learning and in politics. This book will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of history, education and sociology,particularly those interested in the women's movement, and the history of childhood.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Childhood and the Women's Movement 1900-1920.- Chapter 3. Economics of Childhood: Home and Neighbourhood.- Chapter 4. Experiencing Elementary School.- Chapter 5. Women, Children and the Great War.- Chapter 6. After the Great War.
About the author
Berry Mayall is Professor of Childhood Studies at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. She has conducted many research studies on childhood and has written extensively on sociological approaches to childhood.
Summary
This book addresses the inter-linked lives and fortunes of children and women in the first two decades of the twentieth century in England. This was a time of shifts in thinking and practice about children’s and women’s status, lived lives and experiences. The book provides a detailed explanation of how children experienced home, neighbourhood and elementary school; as well as discussing the impact of the women’s movement, namely its suffrage and socialist work. These two concerns are linked by the work women did about and for children. Essentially, the book explores childhood and womanhood; generation and gender; and socialism and feminism. Using existing studies on women’s work, and autobiographies and interviews about childhood, Mayall argues that women played a large part in re-thinking childhood as a special period in life, and children as participants in learning and in politics. This book will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of history, education and sociology,particularly those interested in the women’s movement, and the history of childhood.
Additional text
“A rich and detailed study of the relationship between women and children in the early years of the twentieth century. It sheds important new light on the work of the women’s movement beyond the suffrage campaign, and, through its interesting discussion of personal testimony material, on women and children’s own agency in understanding their lives.” (Angela Davis, History of Education, February, 2019)
Report
"A rich and detailed study of the relationship between women and children in the early years of the twentieth century. It sheds important new light on the work of the women's movement beyond the suffrage campaign, and, through its interesting discussion of personal testimony material, on women and children's own agency in understanding their lives." (Angela Davis, History of Education, February, 2019)
