The Duty to Provide: Fathers, Families and the Workhouse in England, 1880–1914
This chapter explores the ways that the poor laws in England were designed around the norms and ideals of the provider role in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and how in practice the result- ing structures rarely matched the more fluid realities of the lives of the poor. In the decades around 1900, Poor Law provision in England was under intense scrutiny as meanings of poverty and of welfare more generally were being challenged. Growing critiques of the excluding side-effects of the Poor Law accompanied debates about how to bring the male working class into the nation state by reconceptualizing citi- zenship around long-standing social-moral norms of obligation to pro- vide for women, children and the elderly within families. The provider role was thus highly gendered, with husbands and fathers normally required to support their dependents, but the relationship between providing and masculinity was a complex one, particularly amongst the very poorest who availed themselves of Poor Law relief. Those who failed to provide found themselves increasingly vulnerable to pauper- ism, at the same time as its stigma powerfully reinforced the ‘deviant’ position of those claiming relief. However, relationships between wel- fare institutions and families were not totally determined by the state and philanthropic agencies, but were actively used and contested at the individual level by those seeking relief and by collective working-class struggles. The voice of the very poor is notoriously difficult to access, but some fragmentary autobiographical accounts of encounters with pauperism provide opportunities to explore these dynamic relation- ships between the Poor Law and its subjects through the perceptions and reactions of the poor themselves.
The twentieth-century poor law in the Midlands and Wales, c.1900-1930
This thesis examines the New Poor Law between c.1900 and 1930, the last three decades of its operation before boards of guardians were abolished by the 1929 Local Government Act. The poor law during this period has been widely neglected by historians in terms of focused regional studies, and although some scholars have acknowledged the system’s continued activity, the nature of this activity at a local level has been little explored. Discussions of the poor law in existing literature on early twentieth century welfare are more often framed in terms of the alternative provisions being constructed around it, and the unsuccessful attempts by government at reform during these decades. This thesis refocuses attention on the realities of poor law administration on the ground, exploring the post-1900 poor law through four case studies chosen from across the Midlands of England and central Wales. The everyday operations of the poor law unions in each case study are reconstructed, and distinct regional welfare cultures are revealed, with relief policies and practices informed by specific local socio-economic conditions. Interactions between the poor law and a range of key welfare reforms are explored, and the relationship between ‘old’ and ‘new’ welfare systems is shown to have been complex in ways rarely captured in current historiography, whereby the poor law acted as a key safety net for families who fell through the gaps in between the newer welfare provisions, and in some cases as a stepping-stone to access them. Although often strained by conditions for which it was not designed, the poor law continued to play a significant role in the welfare landscape of England and Wales even in these last years of its operation. In this way, this thesis bridges the historiographical gap between the ending of the New Poor Law and the coming of the early welfare state.
The "fair sex".
No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed. It is not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time. Reading will encourage your mind and thoughts. Of course, reading will greatly develop your experiences about everything. Reading fair sex is also a way as one of the collective books that gives many advantages. The advantages are not only for you, but for the other peoples with those meaningful benefits.