THE SOCIOLOGY OF HOUSEWORK

by Ann Oakley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1975

Oakley undertakes a study of the ""job satisfaction"" experienced by 40 young housewives the London area, half working-class, half middle-class. She moots the idea that the comparative ""autonomy"" and ""control"" afforded by working at home might be very satisfying. She reports that the most diligent housewives conduct a sterile race to live up to ""Mum,"" while women of both social classes who held jobs before marriage retain ""a deep-seated appreciation of the rewards experienced in outside work."" Even though the jobs they had were ""not particularly rewarding"" on the whole, the housewives valued publicly recognized responsibilities as well as escape from isolation. The book, which is dedicated to the memory of Oakley's father, Richard Titmuss, the foremost welfare state theoretician of postwar Britain, carries on that tradition of grave curiosity about individuals' personal preferences within the narrow range of choices presented by the existing society. Oakley declines to extend the subjective emphasis to the point of eliciting outbursts of resentment against husbands and children--although British husbands are rarely even nominal task-sharers. She notes that most of her middle-class sample lacked American ""amenities"" and many of the working-class families go without hot running water or indoor toilets; under such conditions, mothers tended to see child-rearing as another branch of tidying up, and only one mother expressed prominent pleasure in playing with her child. Useful descriptive material--detached but close to home.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION