Jump to content

Contributor Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 25/05/22 in all areas

  1. Canny - I remain unconvinced that loads of women were able to benefit directly from the facilities offered in the Mechanics Institutes even where there was a half-price subscription. I suspect that it was only those with some disposable income who could afford the subs; I’m not sure that the vast majority of ‘working poor’ women fell into this group. I can accept that perhaps those women from the ‘trading classes’ – wives and daughters of the butchers, bakers and candle stick makers were the ones who had the time and resources to access these places. The Institutes in the big cities would have had much bigger populations to draw on so the proportion of women wishing, or able, to use the facilities would have been greater. I can’t see many poor wives and mothers in places like Bedlington, enslaved to the tyranny of the poss tub having the time, energy or resources to join the Institutes. Of course, there would have been exceptions but I can’t see it being widespread. My own maternal Grandmother was an exceptional woman who led an incredible life – I’ve posted her story on the Facebook page of her Co.Durham home village … perhaps I might copy it here to illustrate that Victorian/Edwardian working class drive for self-improvement that we’ve been discussing. What do you think?
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...