IX. Wartime Difficulties

Reports
Wartime Social Survey
RG 23/16 - Workers and the War: A series of Short Studies dealing with the Domestic Problems of Working Women, Housewives' Auxillary Occupation, Jobs done at home by Working Men, Shopping and Transport Difficulties, Health and the Use of Canteens, 1942

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IX. WARTIME DIFFICULTIES

An Inquiry made by the Wartime Social Survey for the Ministry of Information, May, 1942

Interviewing was carried out during the period 30th April to 13th May.

“ Are you having any personal difficulties as a result of the war? “

The purpose of this question was to find out whether informants felt that they were having difficulties. Only the subjective point of view of the informant was a taken into account and no enquiry of a factual sort was made into the difficulties experienced.

Interviewers were instructed not to prompt in any circumstances, and if the informant said “No” they were told to record this answer even though remarks made previously during the interview showed that some difficulties were being experienced.

		%
Yes	753	37.5
No	1258	62.5
Sample 2011

There was little difference as between answers received from men and women.

	Men	Women	Total
	%	%	%
Yes	39.9 ± 3.4	35.6	37.5
No	60.1	64.4	62.5
Sample	864	1149

Analysis by Age Groups shows some differences.

	Under 20	20 - 30	30 - 45	45 - 65	Over 65	Total
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Yes	22.8	42.2	40.4	35.6	36.7	37.5
No	77.2	57.8	59.6	64.4	63.3	62.5
Sample	171	391	676	558	210

The two groups 20 to 30 and 30 to 45 are the most affected. Most people of an age to have young families to provide for would fall in this group. It will be seen from the table given below that food and money are the most frequently mentioned difficulties.

There is no statistically significant difference as between urban and rural districts, but Scotland shows a marked difference from England.

	Scotland	North of England	Midland & Wales	South, S.W. & E. Anglia	London	Total
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Yes	48.4 ± 6.4	35.4 ± 4	35.9	33.3 ± 4	42.3 ± 5.8	37.5
No	51.6	64.6	64.1	66.7	57.7	62.5
Sample	219	584	428	466	288

London has a rather higher proportion with difficulties than the rest of England, but the sample is small and the margin of error should be noted.

Breakdown by occupation and groups shows statistically significant differences in the case of workers in heavy industry and the professional and managerial group.

	Yes	No	Sample
	%	%
Housewives	33.8	66.2 ± 3.8	622
Heavy Industry	50.4	49.6 ±10.2	139
Light Industry	37.7	62.3	305
1 Mining, agriculture and other outdoor work	37.0	63.0	300
Clerical and distributive	36.0	64.0	294
Professional and managerial	50.4	49.6 ±10.4	129
2 Others	34.3	65.7	222
Total	37.5	62.5

1. Includes people engaged in building and road repairs, transport and other public services.

2. Retired and unoccupied and miscellaneous occupations.

All those who said they were having difficulties were asked what these were.

		% of sample
Food (shortage, rationing, price)	257	12.8
Money (reduced income, increased cost of living)	158	7.9
Work (too much work, not enough rest, inconvenient hours)	66	3.3
Anxiety about family (members in Forces or away from home)	63	3.1
Clothing (coupons)	63	3.1
Transport (bad service, etc.)	59
Labour shortage (managers and employers)	53
House bombed or damaged	35
Evacuated	33
Tobacco & drinks (shortage, price)	31
Unsettled feeling (disorganization of ordinary life or “nerves”)	31
Food regulations (distributive workers)	25
Petrol shortage	14
Fuel shortage	11
Billetees	10
Blackout	6
Miscellaneous	73
Total having difficulties:	(749)
Sample	2011

Some informants mentioned more than one difficulty, so that the numbers given above add up to more than 749. Percentages are shown only for answers coming from more than 3% of the sample.

There are some differences as between men and women.

	Men	Women	Total
	%	%	%
Food	12.6	12.9	12.8
Money	9.5	6.6	7.9
Work	3.4	3.2	3.3
Anxiety about family	2.2	3.7	3.1
Clothing	3.8	2.6	3.1
Sample	864	1149

Food is about equal with both sexes. Money is more frequently mentioned by men.

The numbers having difficulties in the different occupational groups are too small for a detailed comparison to be made. However the two largest groups, housewives and factory workers (including both light and heavy industry), may be compared.

	Housewives	All factory workers	Total
	%	%	%
Food	14.3 ± 3.8	19.8 ± 3.8	12.8
Money	6.9	5.9	7.9
Work	1.4	4.7	3.3
Anxiety about family	4.6	2.3	3.1
Clothing	1.4	7.8	3.1
Sample	622	444

Food is by far the biggest difficulty with factory workers. Clothing is also mentioned frequently by this group. Housewives show a higher proportion saying Anxiety about family.

Among other occupational groups there are no differences sufficiently marked to have statistical significance when the smallness of the samples and the margin of error are taken into account, except that in the case of retired and unoccupied people 15.2% (+ or - 6.4) mentioned money difficulties, as against 7.9% of the whole sample.

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