Langhamer WHR Final 2016.pdf (454.55 kB)
Download fileFeeling, women and work in the long 1950s
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 00:06 authored by Claire LanghamerThe emotional and occupational cultures of Britain underwent significant shifts during the long 1950s. This article explores the intersection between the two, using a range of social survey material – including Mass Observation sources - to explore feelings about paid work, the impact of paid employment on emotional well-being, and the management of feelings in the workplace. It article suggests that women workers were consistently constructed as both inherently emotional, and therefore unsuited for the higher occupational ranks, and as talented emotional workers able to perform unremunerated emotional labour. Whilst paid employment has often been presented as the antidote to domestic discontent, experiential evidence suggests that it also often involved the migration of private emotion work into the public domain.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Women's History ReviewISSN
0961-2025Publisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
26Page range
77-92Department affiliated with
- History Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes