‘Nothing gets her goat!’ The Farmer's Wife and the Duality of Rural Femininity in the Young Farmers’ Club Movement in 1950s Britain

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Abstract

This article examines the education provided by the Young Farmers' Club organisation for its female members across the 1950s. Numerous historians have highlighted the central role of domesticity in the philosophy behind girls' education and training in 1950s Britain. Few, however, have explored this from the rural perspective. Drawing upon a range of organisational material, alongside both the farming and popular press, this study argues that female members of the organisation were trained to negotiate a dual role both in the home and on the farm and were regularly taught agricultural skills alongside domestic crafts. This training was often framed through a language of opportunity and equality and was shaped by the expectation that, as a farmer's wife, they would undertake agricultural duties. As a result, rural notions of femininity embraced technical skill and physical work in a way that urban domesticity did not and conceptualisations of the rural domestic sphere were restructured to include numerous spaces on the family farm.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)26-45
Number of pages20
JournalWomen's History Review
Volume26
Issue number1
Early online date18 Feb 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • 2020

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