A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
II.
HOUSEWIVES’ AUXILIARY OCCUPATIONS
New Series Regional H. 1
Interviewing was carried out during the period 14th May to 6th June
A sample of 2,936 housewives was interviewed. These were selected in representative proportions from different regions, income groups and age groups.
Housewives were asked: “Apart from household work do you do any other sort of work? What sort of work?
Only housewives who were at home during the day were interviewed, and therefore the figures given below do not show the proportion of married women who are doing jobs other than their household duties.
The figures should be considered in conjunction with those obtained from the Industrial Sample (I.1) in which we ask women in industry whether they are responsible for or help with housekeeping at home.
It is likely that most housewives who are also doing full-time jobs, and also many of those who are doing part-time jobs, would be away from home during the day, and therefore these groups are under-represented in our sample.
The figures therefore show a minimum of housewives doing other sorts of work.
Breakdown of the main headings by income groups shows that a greater proportion of the higher income groups do voluntary work and a smaller proportion paid work.
| Class A | Class B | Class C | Class D | Total | |
| % | % | % | % | % | |
| Paid work | 10.4 | 13.7 | 12.3 | 16.0 | 13.7 |
| Voluntary work | 21.6 | 9.5 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 5.1 |
| No other work | 68.0 | 76.8 | 83.7 | 82.8 | 81.2 |
| SAMPLE | 153 | 595 | 1139 | 1049 | 2936 |
On the whole more housewives in A and B classes do work other than their household duties than in C and D classes, but as will be seen later the hours worked by those doing voluntary work are in general shorter than those worked by housewives doing paid jobs.
Analysis by those living in urban and rural districts shows a tendency for country housewives to be engaged in auxiliary occupations rather more than those living in towns. However, it is mainly voluntary work that is responsible for this difference.
| Urban | Rural | Total | |
| % | % | % | |
| Paid work | 13.3 | 16.5 | 13.7 |
| Voluntary work | 4.3 | 10.5 | 5.1 |
| No other work | 82.4 | 73.0 | 81.2 |
| SAMPLE | 2548 | 388 | 2936 |
(1) Includes munitions, full-time A.R.P., nursing and canteen work.
(2) Jobs previously done by men, such as milk rounds, postal rounds.
(7) e.g. A.R.P. part-time, W.V.S., C.A.B.
(8) e.g. Girl Guides, parish work.
Housewives in the youngest and middle age groups show a higher proportion doing other work than those in the over 50 group. The middle age group has the highest proportion doing voluntary work, the proportion in this group and the youngest group doing paid work being the same.
| Under 35 | 35-50 | Over 50 | Total | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| Paid work | 16.9 | 16.9 | 8.1 | 13.7 |
| Voluntary work | 3.2 | 7.3 | 3.7 | 5.1 |
| No other work | 79.9 | 75.8 | 88.2 | 81.2 |
| * SAMPLE | 676 | 1209 | 1034 | 2936 |
Breakdown by housewives with and without children show marked differences. It should be remembered that those with children under five, with children aged from five to fourteen and with no children, to some extent may be expected to correspond with the housewives in the three age-groups. However, whilst the middle and youngest age groups are more prone to have other occupations, so is the group without children, the group with children under five having by far the lowest proportion doing any other sort of work. Thus these two breakdowns show opposite tendencies in corresponding ago groups, the difference being determined by whether or not the housewives have children.
A separate breakdown has not been worked out to show auxiliary occupations of young housewives who have no children, since the figures in the present sample would be small, but the two breakdowns, taken together, imply that this group is the most prone to take on other jobs as well as household duties.
(The two groups with children are not mutually exclusive)
Figures are too small to give more detailed results in the breakdowns about the type of work done, but it may be noted that 9.9% of D class do outside domestic work as against 4.8% of the whole sample and 3% of Class C.
Also 4.1% of housewives living in rural areas do non-war voluntary work as against 0.8% of the whole sample and 0.3% of those living in towns, the proportions doing voluntary war work in these groups being approximately the same (urban 4.0%, rural 6.4± 2.4%).
Of Classes A and B, 3.3% and 4.7% respectively do clerical work as against 1.8% of the whole sample.
Those who did other work were asked how many hours a week they spent on this. The information was not obtained in all cases, but 391 of the 553 working save an answer.
| Hours per week | % of those doing other work | |
| 4 and less | 6.9 | 46.9 |
| 5 - 10 | 16.4 | |
| 11 - 20 | 23.6 | |
| 21 - 30 | 18.2 | 24.8 |
| 31 - 40 | 6.6 | |
| 41 - 50 | 20.7 | 28.3 |
| 51 - 60 | 6.6 | |
| Over 60 | 1.0 | |
| SAMPLE | 391 | |
It will be seen that the majority of those working, worked less than 40 hours a week, or did only “part-time” work, only 28.3% of the group having full-time jobs. This represents 5.5% of the whole sample.
Analysis of hours worked by paid and voluntary work gives the following results.
| Hours per week | Paid | Voluntary | Total |
| % | % | % | |
| Up to 20 hours | 37.7 | 83.1± 8.2 | 46.9 |
| 21-40 hours | 28.3 | 10.9 | 24.8 |
| More than 40 hours | 34.0 | 6.0 | 28.3 |
| SAMPLE | 297 | 83 | 391 |
The number doing voluntary work is small, and there is a wide margin of error on these figures, but it is sufficiently clear that very much less time is given to voluntary than to paid work.
Those housewives who did no other work besides their household duties were not asked any other questions on the subject, but interviewers were instructed to make a note of any reasons that were given for not working. 24% of housewives who did no other work volunteered such reasons.
These were as follows:-
| % of those giving reasons | |
| Have to look after family (Husbands, children, etc.) | 32.2 |
| No time. Have enough to do already | 29.3 |
| Health not good enough | 19.4 |
| Too old | 13.3 |
| Miscellaneous | 5.8 |
| SAMPLE | 573 |
As might be expected the group of housewives with children under 5 have the highest proportion giving care of family as a reason for not working. This reason also predominates in the group with children of school age, but a higher proportion in this group give the rather more vague answer “No time. Have enough to do already”. Health and old age are more important in the group without children.
% of those giving reasons
In all groups the two reasons, care of family and no time, amount to a substantial proportion of the reasons given, 49.5% of the group with no children under 14 giving one of these reasons. Whether or not there are young children it seems that other household tasks are heavy enough to prevent a large proportion of housewives from taking on other jobs, and it should be remembered that many of those with no children under 14 had sons or daughters older than this to feed and keep clean.
Breakdown by age reflects the same tendencies, if it is assumed that the youngest and middle age groups correspond roughly with the groups with young children. In the over 50 group there is a higher proportion (31.8%) saying they are too old to do other work, as might be expected.
There are some marked differences between different income groups.
It will be seen that In Classes A and B a much higher proportion give the vague[Text Missing] “No time” reason than the lower income groups. Health and old age account for a rather higher proportion (35.8%) of Class D’s answers than of answers given by other groups.
THE SAMPLE
Total: 2,936 housewives