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Fatherhood, furniture and the inter-personal dynamics of working-class homes, c. 1870–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2013

JULIE-MARIE STRANGE
JULIE-MARIE STRANGE*
Affiliation:
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
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Abstract:

Drawing on life stories, this article considers the relationship between urban working-class men and domesticity. Focusing on the spaces, objects and rites of men's homecoming, it questions perceptions of working-class men as peripheral to the inter-personal dynamics of family life and assesses how men's occupation of domestic space and time could be invested with emotive meaning by adult children. The article suggests that fathers were not simply figures of authority or masculine privilege but, rather, that the domestic interior was a space where men and their children navigated family roles and filial obligations to enjoy nurturing and intimate relationships more commonly associated with mothers. In doing so, the article stakes a claim to reconsider the idea that working-class homes were ‘a woman's place’ and view them more dynamically as inter-personal domains.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 271 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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