Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940

Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940 PDF Author: Simon Szreter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521528689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 734

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Book Description
This book offers an original interpretation of the history of falling fertilities in Britain between 1860 and 1940. It integrates the approaches of the social sciences and of demographic, feminist, and labour history with intellectual, social, and political history. It exposes the conceptual and statistical inadequacies of the orthodox picture of a national, unitary class-differential fertility decline, and presents an entirely new analysis of the famous 1911 fertility census of England and Wales. Surprising and important findings emerge concerning the principal methods of birth control: births were spaced from early on in marriage; and sexual abstinence by married couples was a far more significant practice than previously imagined. The author presents a new general approach to the study of fertility change, raising central issues concerning the relationship between history and social science.

Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940

Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940 PDF Author: Simon Szreter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521528689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 734

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers an original interpretation of the history of falling fertilities in Britain between 1860 and 1940. It integrates the approaches of the social sciences and of demographic, feminist, and labour history with intellectual, social, and political history. It exposes the conceptual and statistical inadequacies of the orthodox picture of a national, unitary class-differential fertility decline, and presents an entirely new analysis of the famous 1911 fertility census of England and Wales. Surprising and important findings emerge concerning the principal methods of birth control: births were spaced from early on in marriage; and sexual abstinence by married couples was a far more significant practice than previously imagined. The author presents a new general approach to the study of fertility change, raising central issues concerning the relationship between history and social science.

Social Class and the Fertility Transition

Social Class and the Fertility Transition PDF Author: Geoffrey Barnes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Simon Szreter's book Fertility, class and gender in Britain, 1860-1940 argues that social and economic class fails to explain the cross-sectional differences in marital fertility as reported in the 1911 census of England and Wales. Szreter's conclusion made the book immediately influential, and it remains so. This finding matters a great deal for debates about the causes of the European fertility decline of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For decades scholars have argued whether the main forces at work were ideational or social and economic. This note reports a simple graphical and statistical re-analysis of Szreter's own data. We show that social class does explain cross-sectional differences in English marital fertility in 1911.

Sex Before the Sexual Revolution

Sex Before the Sexual Revolution PDF Author: Simon Szreter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139492896
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
What did sex mean for ordinary people before the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, who were often pitied by later generations as repressed, unfulfilled and full of moral anxiety? This book provides the first rounded, first-hand account of sexuality in marriage in the early and mid-twentieth century. These award-winning authors look beyond conventions of silence among the respectable majority to challenge stereotypes of ignorance and inhibition. Based on vivid, compelling and frank testimonies from a socially and geographically diverse range of individuals, the book explores a spectrum of sexual experiences, from learning about sex and sexual practices in courtship, to attitudes to the body, marital ideals and birth control. It demonstrates that while the era's emphasis on silence and strict moral codes could for some be a source of inhibition and dissatisfaction, for many the culture of privacy and innocence was central to fulfilling and pleasurable intimate lives.

Fertility, Social Class, Gender, and the Professional Model

Fertility, Social Class, Gender, and the Professional Model PDF Author: Simon Szreter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In 2012 Barnes and Guinnane published a revised statistical analysis of the critical evaluation of the official 1911 social class model of fertility decline that was presented in chapter 6 of Szreter's Fertility, class and gender in Britain, 1860-1940 (FCG). They argue that the official model of five ranked social classes is, after all, a satisfactory statistical summary of the fertility variance found among the married couples of England and Wales at the famous 1911 fertility census, and so they conclude that, pace Szreter, the official model provides a satisfactory account of the nation's fertility decline as one of social class differentials. It is acknowledged here that Barnes and Guinnane have deployed superior statistical techniques. However, it is pointed out that FCG identified fundamental problems with the design of the 1911 official model. It was a social evolutionary model privileging male professional occupations, not a modelling of recognized social class theory at the time or since. In FCG it was therefore termed 'the professional model'. The central historiographical claim of FCG is re-affirmed: that in order to study fruitfully the historical relationship between social class and fertility decline, an alternative approach is needed which explicitly integrates gender relations with social class.

Changing Family Size in England and Wales

Changing Family Size in England and Wales PDF Author: Eilidh Garrett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139428810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
This volume is an important study in demographic history. It draws on the individual returns from the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses of England and Wales, to which Garrett, Reid, Schürer and Szreter were permitted access ahead of scheduled release dates. Using the responses of the inhabitants of thirteen communities to the special questions included in the 1911 'fertility' census, they consider the interactions between the social, economic and physical environments in which people lived and their family-building experience and behaviour. Techniques and approaches based in demography, history and geography enable the authors to re-examine the declines in infant mortality and marital fertility which occurred at the turn of the twentieth century. Comparisons are drawn within and between white-collar, agricultural and industrial communities, and the analyses, conducted at both local and national level, lead to conclusions which challenge both contemporary and current orthodoxies.

A Woman's Place

A Woman's Place PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Teenage girls
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Reshaping Social Life

Reshaping Social Life PDF Author: Sarah Irwin
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415339377
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Through analysis of key areas of social life, Irwin breaks with convention and develops a conceptual and analytical perspective of social change, focusing on relationality, context and interdependence.

Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences

Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences PDF Author: Michaela Kreyenfeld
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319446673
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This open access book provides an overview of childlessness throughout Europe. It offers a collection of papers written by leading demographers and sociologists that examine contexts, causes, and consequences of childlessness in countries throughout the region.The book features data from all over Europe. It specifically highlights patterns of childlessness in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. An additional chapter on childlessness in the United States puts the European experience in perspective. The book offers readers such insights as the determinants of lifelong childlessness, whether governments can and should counteract increasing childlessness, how the phenomenon differs across social strata and the role economic uncertainties play. In addition, the book also examines life course dynamics and biographical patterns, assisted reproduction as well as the consequences of childlessness. Childlessness has been increasing rapidly in most European countries in recent decades. This book offers readers expert analysis into this issue from leading experts in the field of family behavior. From causes to consequences, it explores the many facets of childlessness throughout Europe to present a comprehensive portrait of this important demographic and sociological trend.

A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939 - 2000

A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939 - 2000 PDF Author: Paul Addison
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405141409
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
A Companion to Contemporary Britain covers the key themesand debates of 20th-century history from the outbreak of the SecondWorld War to the end of the century. Assesses the impact of the Second World War Looks at Britain’s role in the wider world, including thelegacy of Empire, Britain’s ‘specialrelationship’ with the United States, and integration withcontinental Europe Explores cultural issues, such as class consciousness,immigration and race relations, changing gender roles, and theimpact of the mass media Covers domestic politics and the economy Introduces the varied perspectives dominating historicalwriting on this period Identifies the key issues which are likely to fuel futuredebate

Patient voices in Britain, 1840–1948

Patient voices in Britain, 1840–1948 PDF Author: Anne Hanley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526154870
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Historians have long engaged with Roy Porter’s call for histories that incorporate patients’ voices and experiences. But despite concerted methodological efforts, there has simply not been the degree and breadth of innovation that Porter envisaged. Patients’ voices still often remain obscured. This has resulted in part from assumptions about the limitations of archives, many of which are formed of institutional records written from the perspective of health professionals. Patient voices in Britain repositions patient experiences at the centre of healthcare history, using new types of sources and reading familiar sources in new ways. Focusing on military medicine, Poor Law medicine, disability, psychiatry and sexual health, this collection encourages historians to tackle the ethical challenges of using archival material and to think more carefully about how their work might speak to persistent health inequalities and challenges in health-service delivery.