Poverty and Aspiration: Young Women's Entry to Employment in Inter-war England Free

This article examines young women's entry to employment in inter-war England. In doing so, it sheds light on a neglected aspect of their lives—paid work—in a period recently identified by historians as crucial in the emergence of the modern, independent young woman. It is argued that entering employment marked the beginning of a social, cultural, and economic transition from girlhood to womanhood. The relationship between gender, life cycle, and social class in inter-war England is reassessed. The period has been identified as one when a ‘traditional’ working-class identity was breaking down, with women's relationship to social class viewed as particularly problematic by those historians who have argued domesticity defined inter-war femininity. Contemporary social surveys, the Census and government records, and life histories demonstrate that young women's entry to and choice of employment was influenced by their social background, with kinship and neighbourhood networks used to locate and obtain jobs. Employment expansion increased the state's importance in directing girls to jobs, but poverty continued to constrain employment choice. Awareness of this informed young women's own social aspirations. Interwar femininity and youthful identity formation thus did not signify the decline of social class, but were rather shaped by it.