‘An Era of Domesticity’? Histories of Women and Gender in Interwar Britain

Youth Movements, Citizenship and the English Countryside

“…12 The most well known of these 15 The Scouts paid particular attention to the problem of unemployment amongst the organisation's members. However, the movement also turned its attention outwards to the numbers of unemployed who were not associated with the movement.…”

“…The Board of Education's Policy for the Leisure-Time Training of Girls,1939-50', History of Education, 23 (4), 385-403; Chapter 10 in Osgerby, Youth in Britain. 15 Ministry of Education, Youth Service, p.1. 16 For discussions of the working class affluence in this period see Peter Hennessy, Having It So Good: themselves out in considerations of leisure, with increased opportunities for recreation being symbolic of an improvement in life style.…”

“…In actuality membership of the Scouts hit an all-time high in 1960. 15 Ministry of Education, Youth Service, p.1.…”

“…Until these problems were addressed, it concluded, it could not effectively tackle the "puzzling" and "shocking" 15 behaviour of post-war youth and adequately prepare them for future duties of citizenship. These youth movements saw relatively high, although fluctuating, levels of membership across this period and a study of the training provided by them becomes as central to our perception of twentieth century youth as the 'milk bar' is to our image of the post-war 'teenager'.…”

“…14 Proctor, 'Gender,Generation' , p.2. carers. 15 The domestic-centred training provided by the Guides can be seen as just this, an attempt to reassert order and to follow the ethos of conservatism that followed the war. Historians including Light, Beddoe and Kent have highlighted such conservatism at this time.…”