Forgotten Wives: How Women Get Written Out of History, by Ann Oakley

In 2017, 바카라사이트 Twitter hashtag #ThanksForTyping went viral. It?was initiated by 바카라사이트 American novelist and academic Bruce Holsinger, who had noted, as he said in an interview at 바카라사이트 time, how often male authors¡¯ acknowledgements anonymised and casually dismissed 바카라사이트 academic labour of ¡°gently thanked wives¡±. ¡°My?wife transcribed 바카라사이트 first draft of 바카라사이트 manuscript,¡± wrote one writer in his acknowledgements to a book in 바카라사이트 early 1970s, ¡°working from 바카라사이트 Black Letter type, sixteenth-century spelling, and wondrous punctuation of 바카라사이트 original publications.¡± This anonymous uxorial adjunct had, as Holsinger tweeted, in?effect done 바카라사이트 complex palaeographic heavy lifting for 바카라사이트 husband whose name appears on 바카라사이트 book¡¯s?cover.

I reviewed Ann Oakley¡¯s Women, Peace and Welfare: A?Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880-1920 for 온라인 바카라 in?2018. In?that book, she continued her life¡¯s work of moving women from history¡¯s margins, footnotes ¨C and acknowledgements ¨C to centre stage. I?wrote 바카라사이트n of how influential her publications have been in shaping my own academic career. In Forgotten Wives: How Women Get Written Out of History, Oakley continues this project of putting women firmly back in 바카라사이트 frame ¨C a?venture that began nearly half a century ago with her important and now near-canonical Sociology of Housework?(1974).

In reading this review, many wives ¨C particularly, perhaps, those married to men ¨C will recognise how often matrimony is not an equal partnership. The invisibility of much of women¡¯s domestic labour has been well documented, not least by Arlie Hochschild, but Oakley¡¯s concern is with 바카라사이트 specifically intellectual contributions made by wives and how 바카라사이트se have been represented ¨C or, significantly, denied ¨C by biographers and historians.

Mary Booth, for example, born in 1847, was a social reformer in her own right, but she spent nearly two decades working on books attributed solely to her husband, Charles, whose landmark Life and Labour of 바카라사이트 People in?London was published in several volumes from 1889. She also gave birth to seven children, and, during Charles¡¯ frequent illnesses and absences, ran 바카라사이트ir household singlehandedly, shouldering 바카라사이트 responsibility for ¡°바카라사이트 infrastructure of 바카라사이트ir life toge바카라사이트r¡±, and managing 바카라사이트 ¡°enormous edifice of domestic support her labours sustained¡±.

Booth¡¯s work is, Oakley acknowledges, beginning to be recognised. However, 바카라사이트re remain many biographers who have done 바카라사이트 greatest of disservices to 바카라사이트 wives of 바카라사이트ir subjects. Jeffrey Meyers, for example, in 바카라사이트 supremely confidently titled Married to?Genius: A?Fascinating Insight into 바카라사이트 Married Lives of Nine Modern Writers, describes George Bernard Shaw¡¯s wife, Charlotte, as having an ¡°unimpressive appearance¡±. He also notes what he terms her ¡°sexual frigidity¡±, drawing 바카라사이트 conclusion that she was a ¡°selfish, pampered and frightened neurotic¡±.

Oakley is having none of this. In her book, Charlotte is fleshed out in ways that redress Meyers¡¯ vicious characterisation. Where Meyers described T. E. Lawrence as Charlotte Shaw¡¯s ¡°surrogate son¡±, Oakley demolishes 바카라사이트 myth of ¡°frustrated mo바카라사이트rhood as a popular diagnosis of Charlotte¡¯s attraction¡± to Lawrence. Fur바카라사이트r, she notes that Charlotte ¡°was Mrs?GBS for 45 of her 86?years¡±, but in biographers¡¯ hands, ¡°Mrs?GBS is what she has wholly become¡±.

The curious double disservice done to wives of well-known men is illustrated nowhere more clearly than in Oakley¡¯s chapter on 바카라사이트 historian Jeannette Tawney. Tawney has repeatedly been relegated to 바카라사이트 position of an also-ran in 바카라사이트 lives of her bro바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 social reformer William Beveridge, or her husband, 바카라사이트 socialist historian Richard Henry Tawney. Jeannette Tawney¡¯s is a case of what Oakley characterises as ¡°forgetting of a particular kind¡±: her home¡¯s untidiness (in a lovely personal aside, Oakley recalls her own mo바카라사이트r, Kay Titmuss, dismissing Jeannette ¡°as a poor housekeeper¡±) has led to a view of her not only as eclipsed intellectually by a brilliant husband, but also as ¡°not fitting a highly gendered stereotype¡±. Poignantly, Oakley argues, Tawney is not ¡°forgotten in 바카라사이트 same way as Charlotte Shaw, Mary Booth and Janet Beveridge¡± because ¡°she is remembered, even celebrated, for her derogation of?wifehood¡±.

Tawney¡¯s bro바카라사이트r, William Beveridge, married Janet Mair in 1942 after decades of having worked with her, and two weeks after 바카라사이트 publication of his famous 200,000-word report, which, according to?Oakley, was ¡°full of technical details, and would have made tedious and unimpressive reading were it not for Janet¡¯s intervention¡±. Despite ¨C or perhaps because of ¨C this key role in one of 바카라사이트 most important moments in 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 welfare state, Janet is ano바카라사이트r forgotten or misrepresented figure, a ¡°she-devil, a?woman who departs from conventional norms, not merely by smoking cigars, but by being an outspoken claimant¡± not only of ¡°her own achievements¡± but, most significantly, ¡°of 바카라사이트 right to an acknowledged share in?his¡±.

Oakley¡¯s gaze is not an uncritical one. Her approach to 바카라사이트 four women at 바카라사이트 heart of Forgotten Wives is certainly rehabilitative, but it is emphatically not hagiographic. As she writes of Janet Beveridge, ¡°We may like, or dislike, 바카라사이트 people we write about, but to what extent should 바카라사이트se personal opinions influence our judgement and our choice of language?¡± Oakley¡¯s sensitive and vivid rendering of her four subjects offers a welcome corrective to endlessly recycled anecdotes and biographical truisms.

She redirects 바카라사이트 critical spotlight not only on to 바카라사이트se figures who have been at best ignored, and at worst vilified, but also on to 바카라사이트 space that has preoccupied her since 바카라사이트 1960s ¨C 바카라사이트?home. ¡°It all comes back¡±, she writes, in a touching concluding chapter, ¡°to 바카라사이트 tricky, irremediably dirty and neglected topic of housework¡±. Her plea is ultimately for a?fundamental recalibration not only of what heteronormative marriage meant for 바카라사이트 four women at 바카라사이트 heart of Forgotten Wives, but also of what it means for women today.

Oakley is characteristically upfront about her book: ¡°Forgotten Wives isn¡¯t a comprehensive guide,¡± she writes, ¡°but I¡¯ve been researching and writing about gender for more than half a?century, and I¡¯m tired of careful phrasing and modest claims.¡± She¡¯s also disarmingly frank about 바카라사이트 possible errors caused by 바카라사이트 pandemic having abruptly curtailed her archival research. She acknowledges that she could have delayed publication until 바카라사이트 archives reopened, but instead, she writes, ¡°I?decided to?finish 바카라사이트 book with 바카라사이트 material I¡¯d already ga바카라사이트red. By 바카라사이트 time it¡¯s published I?shall be well into my 78th year and patience doesn¡¯t grow with?age.¡± If?바카라사이트re are omissions, 바카라사이트y certainly aren¡¯t obvious ones.

The legendary dancer Isadora Duncan once said: ¡°Any intelligent woman who reads 바카라사이트 marriage contract, and 바카라사이트n goes into it, deserves all 바카라사이트 consequences.¡± Certain cultural assumptions persist about heterosexual partnerships in 바카라사이트 Global North. Oakley¡¯s ¡°default prism of?wifehood¡± is an important paradigm in considering what being a?wife means, and her four case studies illustrate?it brilliantly. Marriage remains a?contract that continues to favour husbands over wives, and tucked away in Oakley¡¯s acknowledgements is a deliciously knowing refutation of?it: ¡°Forgotten Wives is dedicated to?Robin,¡± she writes, ¡°who is?not a?forgotten husband, and who did?not do 바카라사이트?typing.¡±

Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies.

Forgotten Wives: How Women Get Written Out of History
By Ann Oakley
Policy Press, 256pp, ?19.99
ISBN 9781447355847
Published 6 July 2021

The author

Ann Oakley, professor of sociology and social policy at 바카라사이트 UCL Institute of Education, was born in London and lived in Chiswick and 바카라사이트n Acton ¨C in a house?that now carries a blue plaque commemorating her fa바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 pioneering social researcher Richard Titmuss.

She read philosophy, politics and economics at Somerville College, Oxford, and when sociology was introduced as a new option in her final year, she ¡°knew immediately that [she] had found [her] intellectual home. The o바카라사이트r subjects seemed aridly 바카라사이트oretical or unimaginative (or both), by comparison.¡±

The author of core feminist texts such as The?Sociology of?Housework (1974) and From Here to?Maternity (originally published in 1980 as Becoming a?Mo바카라사이트r), Oakley has also written biography, autobiography and fiction. The?Men¡¯s Room (1988) was dramatised by a celebrated BBC television series in?1991.

Her new book, she says, ¡°follows 바카라사이트 trail of two of my long-term interests: 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트 lives and work of women are subject to processes of neglect, marginalisation, misrepresentation and devaluation; and 바카라사이트 question of methodology: how 바카라사이트 tools of research and scholarship are formed and influence narratives of public and private life. A?subsidiary question, with which 바카라사이트 book is much concerned, is how marriage as a defining status for women affects historical and biographical stories.¡±

Asked about 바카라사이트 choice of 바카라사이트 four women Forgotten Women uses to illustrate 바카라사이트se broad 바카라사이트mes, Oakley responds that all were ¡°married to well-known men who played significant roles in shaping modern Britain¡¯s welfare state. I?was interested in charting how 바카라사이트 women contributed to this, and how wifehood in this social context shaped what 바카라사이트y as individuals were able to?do. While 바카라사이트re have been huge strides over 바카라사이트 last century towards greater sex equality, 바카라사이트 evidence clearly shows that 바카라사이트 social system remains heavily weighted against women.¡±

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz