The Parlour and the Suburb: Domestic Identities, Class, Femininity and Modernity

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The Parlour and the Suburb challenges stereotypes about domesticity with a reevaluation of women's roles in the 'private' sphere. Classic accounts of modernity have generally ignored or marginalized women, relegating them to the private sphere of home, sexuality and personal relationships. This private sphere has been understood as a gendered space in which a non-modern femininity is opposed to the masculine world of politics, economics, urban life and the workplace. The author argues, however, that home and private life have been crucial spaces in which the interrelations of class and gender have been significant in the formation of modern feminine subjectivities Focusing on the first half of the twentieth century, The Parlour and the Suburb examines how women experienced and understood the home and private life in light of modernity. It explores the identities and self-definitions that domesticity inscribed and shows how these were central to women's sense of themselves as 'modern' individuals. The book draws on a range of cultural texts and practices to explore aspects of domestic modernity that have received little attention in most accounts of modern subjectivities.Topics covered include suburbia, consumption practices, domestic service and the wartime figure of the housewife. Texts examined include a range of women's magazines, George Orwell's Coming up for Air, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, BBC Home Service's 'Help for Housewives' and oral history narratives. 'In this persuasively argued book Giles discusses the highly gendered nature of the concept of modernity which has, to date, marginalized the domestic space and women's traditional role as 'homemakers'.' Stephanie Spencer, Literature & History

Reviews

'This book should attract a wide readership from cultural and social historians, an it provides a valuable context for the growing body of research on consumption, credit, and housing in twentieth-century Britain.' Business History 'A wide-ranging and ambitious rethinking of narratives of modernity The analysis and argument are perceptive, illuminating and eloquently expressed, making the text a pleasure to read.' Helen Rogers, Liverpool John Moores University 'Using a wide range of sources, Judy Giles has produced a fascinating study of the making of the modern woman and a wonderfully lucid and stimulating re-reading of the relation of modernity to suburbia, domesticity, consumerism and the home.' Mary Eagleton, Leeds Metropolitan University 'This fascinating book convincingly subverts the classic anti- home rhetoric of modernity. Innovative and challenging, it is an important work and a must for historians of women in modern society.' June Purvis, Professor of Women's and Gender History, University of Portsmouth 'An engaging and though-provoking text... provides a balance to historical works that examine the increasingly public life of women in the twentieth century.' Kate Bradley, Centre for Contemporary British History, Institute of Historical Research 'The book provides a valuable context for the growing body of research on consumption, credit and housing in twentieth century Britain.' Selena Todd, Girton College, Cambridge, in Business History (47:3) 'In this persuasively argued book Giles discusses the highly gendered nature of the concept of modernity which has, to date, marginalized the domestic space and women's traditional role as 'homemakers'.' Literature & History (15/2 Autumn 2006)

Author Bio

Judy Giles Reader in Gender and Cultural Criticism,York St John's College