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Uncovering the Lives of Women in Post-War Oxfordshire: An Oral History Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

ANGELA DAVIS
ANGELA DAVIS*
Affiliation:
St. Cross College, Oxford, OX1 3LZ, UK
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Abstract

Writing in 1960 Margaret Stacey asserted that, ‘Women, compared with men, tend to show group characteristics regardless of other social factors like class. Their training from childhood sets them apart from boys and together as potential wives and mothers.’ This article will question whether Oxfordshire women did indeed believe that there was a commonality in their experiences at this time, irrespective of the locality in which they lived or the class to which they belonged, or whether these differences were more significant than their shared gender. The first objective of this article is therefore to analyse the role class played in determining women's experiences of life in Oxfordshire at this time. Leading on from this, the second objective is to investigate the importance of locality upon lived experience, and to engage, in Charles Phythian-Adams' words, in the process of ‘unravelling localized identities’ (1987). Using Oxfordshire as a case study it is possible to examine a range of communities: rural, urban and suburban. This article will demonstrate how the nature of these different communities affected women's experiences of living within them. The third objective is to discuss the ways in which the women I interviewed expressed their experiences of rural living through the oral history interview, and how their accounts relate to contemporary debates and existing historical interpretations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 105 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

Notes

1 Stacey, M., Tradition and Change: A Study of Banbury (Oxford, 1960), p. 136.Google Scholar

2 Robert Millar's optimism exemplifies the positive view. ‘In the socially-fluid society of the Sixties new lines are being drawn which owe little to the old criteria of accent, social behaviour and family background.’ Millar, R., The New Classes (London, 1966), p. 19Google Scholar; John Goldthorpe et al. thought this was not the case. There was no assimilation of the working class into the middle class but at most a less dramatic process of convergence. Goldthorpe, J.Lockwood, D.Bechofer, F. and Platt, J., The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure (Cambridge, 1969), p. 26.Google Scholar

3 Tina, BE3.

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8 Phythian-Adams, C., Re-thinking English Local History (Leicester, 1987), p. xii.Google Scholar

9 Sarah Williams and Margaret Houlbrook have found that the influence of religion in regulating behaviour was strong in London, but women in Oxford did not report this as being the case. The role of religion in regulating behaviour seemed to be stronger in Oxfordshire's villages and small towns than larger urban and suburban areas. Williams, S., Religious Belief and Popular Culture in Southwark, c.1880–1939 (Oxford, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; M. Houlbrook, ‘Rite Out of the Past: The Churching of Women in the Twentieth Century’, Social History Society 31st Annual Conference, University of Reading, 2006.

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22 The recordings and transcripts of the interviews are held by the author.

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29 Maud, interviewed by author, 30th January, 2006.

30 Maud, interviewed by author, 30th January, 2006.

31 Madge, interviewed by author, 27th January, 2006.

32 Ingrid, interviewed by author, 4th February, 2005.

33 Phyllis, interviewed by author, 26th January, 2006.

34 Bobbie, interviewed by author, 31st January, 2006.

35 Doris, interviewed by author, 26th June, 2004; Tina, interviewed by author, 26th June, 2004.

36 Tina, interviewed by author, 26th June, 2004.

37 Peggy, interviewed by author, 5th July, 2005.

38 Megan, interviewed by author, 8th January, 2006.

39 Willmott, P. and Young, M., Family and Class in a London Suburb (London, 1960), p. 80.Google Scholar The incidence of middle-class women phoning their mothers for advice on childcare was discussed in the chapter on antenatal education.

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41 Willmott and Young, Family and Kinship, p. 84.

42 Maud, interviewed by author, 30th January, 2006.

43 Gloria, interviewed by author, 15th June, 2004.

44 Theresa, interviewed by author, 6th September, 2005.

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49 Willmott and Young, Family and Class, p. 128.

50 Ibid., p. 105.

51 Fiona, interviewed by author, 27th July, 2004.

52 Agnes, interviewed by author, 8th December, 2004.

53 Glenda, interviewed by author, 24th January, 2006.

54 Peggy, interviewed by author, 5th July, 2005.

55 Rita, interviewed by author, 20th January, 2006.

56 Willmott and Young, Family and Class, pp. 101–8.

57 Judy, interviewed by author, 18th November, 2004.

58 Rose, interviewed by author, 17th December, 2004.

59 Hannah, interviewed by author, 20th December, 2004.

60 Kelly, interviewed by author, 9th December, 2004.

61 Marilyn, interviewed by author, 13th June, 2004.

62 Siobhan, interviewed by author, 7th June, 2004.

63 Lindsay, interviewed by author, 23rd February, 2005.

64 Claudia, interviewed by author, 12th January, 2005.

65 Rose, interviewed by author, 17th December, 2004.

66 Gloria, interviewed by author, 15th June, 2004.

67 Camilla, interviewed by author, 7th April, 2005.

68 Stacey, Tradition and Change, pp. 11–4.

69 Agnes, interviewed by author, 8th December, 2004.

70 Diana, interviewed by author, 6th September, 2004.

71 Diana, interviewed by author, 6th September, 2004.

72 Jackie, interviewed by author, 31st January, 2006.

73 Peggy, interviewed by author, 5th July, 2005.

74 Doreen, interviewed by author, 26th June, 2004.

75 Alice, interviewed by author, 13th February, 2006.

76 Florence, interviewed by author, 13th October, 2004.

77 Gloria, interviewed by author, 15th June, 2004.

78 Karen, interviewed by author, 8th February, 2005.

79 Rebecca, interviewed by author, 29th April, 2005.