The Welfare State Generation by Eve Worth

Author:Eve Worth [Worth, Eve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Europe, Great Britain, Social History, Modern, 20th Century, 21st Century, Women
ISBN: 9781350192089
Google: mTBREAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-12-16T03:11:15+00:00

Autonomy

The impact of large public sector reorganizations and the introduction of new layers of management filtered down to the regulation of the day-to-day activities of women working in the welfare state: political change was experienced on a personal level. Paradoxically, therefore, although Thatcherite rhetoric was framed around freedom from state intervention, successive Conservative governments’ dislike of an expansive welfare state meant that, in practice, many women experienced a steep increase in intervention from the late 1980s onwards. Land argued that, during this period, it was ‘of particular significance to women’ that ‘those involved in the production of the social wage [had] a weaker voice’.102 The pioneering Labour minister Barbara Castle had defined the ‘social wage’ in 1981 as ‘the standard of publicly provided services which mean so much to famil[ies]- health, education, housing and a good environment’.103 This loss of autonomy was fundamental to the process of de-professionalization and made it harder for women to make the kinds of politicized intervention through welfare roles outlined in the previous chapter. Women of this generation described this in detail in their interviews because they had often worked in the welfare state before, during and (sometimes) after the policy shifts.

Some women, who had divorced and were now single or married to new partners, experienced positive moments in their personal lives during this decade. This feeling of more agency in their personal lives could contrast with increasing loss of autonomy in the workplace. After marrying young, many women of this generation indicated that they felt happier living on their own or found their new relationships more compatible than their first marriages. India (b.1947) and Clara (b.1939) both emphasized that they knew themselves a little better by early middle age and felt more relaxed in their second marriages. Theresa (b.1941) and Jacqui (b.1943) were relieved to be separated from the husbands; they had long thought it had been a mistake to marry. After her divorce, and with a young daughter, Jacqui made the decision to leave social work because it was becoming very stressful and took an entry-level position at a publishing house.104 She described ‘missing the sense of professional self terribly’ and occasionally decided to put an application in for a social work role but ultimately resolved that ‘it was all retrograde, there was no way it was going to work’.105

Women articulated that having a degree of freedom to exercise their own judgement in their work was very important to them. They believed that there had previously been faith in their ability, and they were often left alone to carry out their duties. Jean expressed these sentiments about her nursing role during the 1970s: ‘When I was a district nurse back before I had my children, you’d use your common sense you know – you went in to see somebody, and you’d decide well do they really need a bath or did they need breakfast? You’d use your skills and make a decision.’106 Women employed in other welfare professions shared similar experiences. Rita described her time in an early academic job: ‘I could do things and I could really make a difference.

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