A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
Wartime Social Survey
II.
Use of Laundries and Housewives' Difficulties
New Series Regional H.1
Interviewing was carried out during the period 14th May to 6th June.
The purpose of this inquiry was to find out what proportion of housewives sent clothes to the laundry, and whether those who did were having difficulties of any sort.
Detailed questions about the quantity and type of clothes sent were not asked as only a general result was needed.
2943 housewives were interviewed. These were selected in representative proportions from different regions, income groups and age groups.
Question : “Do you send any clothes or linen to the laundry?”
“Regularly” was defined as once a month or more often and “Occasionally” as less than once a month.
There are marked differences between urban and rural districts.
| Urban | Rural | Total | |
| % | % | % | |
| Regularly | 45.5 | 30.9 ± 4.6 | 43.5 |
| Occasionally | 5.2 | 3.6 | 5.0 |
| Never | 49.3 | 65.5 ± 4.8 | 51.5 |
| Sample | 2555 | 388 | 2943 |
It will be seen that people in country districts make less use of laundries than those living in towns.
Analysis by Region also shows marked differences.
The proportion using laundries is very much higher in London than in other regions. Scotland has a rather higher proportion than other regions using laundries occasionally.
Analysis by income groups gives the following results:-
| Top Group Lowest Group | |||||
| A | B | C | D | Total | |
| % | % | % | % | % | |
| Regularly | 84.4 | 66.7 | 42.1 | 26.0 | 43.5 |
| Occasionally | 3.2 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 4.6 | 5.0 |
| Never | 12.4 | 27.9 | 52.6 | 69.4 | 51.5 |
| Sample | 153 | 595 | 1145 | 1050 | 2943 |
It will be seen that laundries are very much more widely used by the higher income groups than by the lower.
The proportions using laundries occasionally or less than once a month are about the same through all groups.
A rather higher proportion of housewives with no children than of housewives with children used laundries.
| Housewives with: | ||||
| Children under 5 | Children 5-14 | No. children | Total | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| Regularly | 38.1 | 37.2 | 46.9 | 43.5 |
| Occasionally | 5.9 | 6.2 | 4.4 | 5.0 |
| Never | 56.0 | 56.6 | 48.7 | 51.5 |
| Sample | 643 | 875 | 1516 | 2943 |
The two groups with children are not mutually exclusive.
Those who used laundries were asked “Have you had any difficulty lately? What sort of difficulty?
400 housewives (28% of those using laundries) said they were having difficulties. These were classified as follows:-
SAMPLE
Total 2943 housewives