GENDER IN HISTORY
Series editors:
Lynn Abrams, Cordelia Beattie, Pam Sharpe and Penny Summerfield
The expansion of research into the history of women and gender since the 1970s has changed the face of history. Using the insights of feminist theory and of historians of women, gender historians have explored the configuration in the past of gender identities and relations between the sexes. They have also investigated the history of sexuality and family relations, and analysed ideas and ideals of masculinity and femininity. Yet gender history has not abandoned the original, inspirational project of womens history: to recover and reveal the lived experience of women in the past and the present.
The series Gender in History provides a forum for these developments. Its historical coverage extends from the medieval to the modern periods, and its geographical scope encompasses not only Europe and North America but all corners of the globe. The series aims to investigate the social and cultural constructions of gender in historical sources, as well as the gendering of historical discourse itself. It embraces both detailed case studies of specific regions or periods, and broader treatments of major themes. Gender in History titles are designed to meet the needs of both scholars and students working in this dynamic area of historical research.
Gender, rhetoric and regulation
OTHER RECENT BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Love, intimacy and power: marriage and patriarchy in Scotland, 16501850 Katie Barclay (Winner of the 2012 Womens History Network Book Prize)
Modern women on trial: sexual transgression in the age of the flapper Lucy Bland
The Womens Liberation Movement in Scotland Sarah Browne
Modern motherhood: women and family in England, c. 19452000 Angela Davis
Jewish women in Europe in the Middle Ages: a quiet revolution Simha Goldin
The shadow of marriage: singleness in England, 191460 Katherine Holden
Women, dowries and agency: marriage in fifteenth-century Valencia Dana Wessell Lightfoot
Women, travel and identity: journeys by rail and sea, 18701940 Emma Robinson-Tomsett
Imagining Caribbean womanhood: race, nation and beauty contests, 192970 Rochelle Rowe
Infidel feminism: secularism, religion and womens emancipation, England 18301914 Laura Schwartz
Being boys: working-class masculinities and leisure Melanie Tebbutt
Queen and country: same sex desire in the British Armed Forces, 193945 Emma Vickers
The perpetual fair: gender, disorder and urban amusement in eighteenth-century London Anne Wohlcke
GENDER, RHETORIC AND REGULATION
WOMENS WORK IN THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL, 190055
Helen Glew
Manchester University Press
Copyright Helen Glew 2016
The right of Helen Glew to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 9027 1 hardback
First published 2016
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Gordon Glew (19252013), whose enthusiasm for life and learning I miss. I hope he would have enjoyed this book.
Contents
Credits for all figures: Royal Mail Group Ltd 2015, courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive
This book has been a long time in the making. Parts of it started life as an AHRC-funded PhD thesis undertaken collaboratively at the Institute of Contemporary British History (now at Kings College, London) and the British Postal Museum and Archive. I benefited enormously from the support of Pat Thane, whose practical, calm and wise guidance was always helpful. Thanks also to Michael Kandiah and Virginia Preston for their help and support. Sally Alexander and Martin Daunton examined the thesis and offered generous comments and insights into my work. It was Martin who first suggested that I expand my research to look at women working in the LCC and I am grateful for the new direction this offered me. I hope this book does his idea some justice.
My colleagues in the Department of History, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Westminster always took an interest in this project and offered guidance throughout. In particular, Mark Clapson, Peter Catterall, Martin Doherty, Anthony Gorst and David Manlow were always willing to discuss ideas and the progress of my work and I am grateful for their support. I would also like to thank the students who have taken 1HIS658 Women and the Womens Movement, 191870, with me over the years. Sharing elements of my research with them and hearing their questions helped me to think in new ways about what I was writing.
In the course of my research I have drawn on bodies of material held at a large number of institutions and I am grateful to the assistance given to me by so many members of staff. First and foremost, the British Postal Museum & Archives staff have been there from the very beginning of this project and have always been supportive, ready with encouragement, suggestions of new sources or just positivity on the days when I wondered where the research was going. I would particularly like to thank all of the archivists and cataloguers past and present, all the members of the search room team, Libby Buckley and Adrian Steel for their supervision and support and Martin Devereux for his good humour and his help preparing the photographs that appear in this publication. Thanks also to all of the staff at the following: the London Metropolitan Archives (especially Bridget Howlett who patiently answered a number of lengthy queries), the National Archives, the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick, the Womens Library, the Wellcome Library, the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, the British Library and BT Archives.
I would like to thank everyone at Manchester University Press for their help, for all they have done to bring this book to completion and most of all for their patience. I received excellent feedback and critique from the anonymous peer reviewers at both the book proposal stage and on completion of the draft manuscript. A number of fellow scholars have offered useful critiques or suggestions for sources or read sections of the draft manuscript. In no particular order I would like to thank Lucy Delap, Sonya Rose, Adrian Bingham, Claire Langhamer, Helen McCarthy and Selina Todd. As with any project, any errors or omissions that remain are my responsibility.
