Mecanismos y estrategias de poder utilizados frente al patrón

IV : 9 : 3 The Influence of Men's Work on ilomestic Life and Leisure Activities.

The Works Group

One of the surprising findings of the interviews was the degree of importance the men and women in this group gave to their home and family life. Indeed, in motivational, thematic and interpretations! terms family life provided the major focus of both women and men outside of work. The picture often presented of male working-class men as primarily extra familial in orientation, reliant on male networks for their social activities outside work and firmly attached to collectivist labour politics did not easily fit the lifestyles of the men in this group.

Although much attention has rightly focussed on the drudgery and difficulties of housework Leg Oakley 1976 and 1982; Barrett 19803 it should be noted that work of the men in this group was also very repetitive, involved long and anti social hours and often took place in an unpleasant working environment. Their general attitude towards their work is best described as instrumentalLcf:Lockwood, 19663 or, as a means to other ends, outside oi work.

Harry Atkins' and Bert Gregory's recollections summed up the attitudes of almost all the men in this group:

"I have rarely met anyone who earns their living in a real manual working ciass situation who did not literally hate it and I include myself here, it is a feeling which can never be appreciated unless it has existed in your own mind, only those who have actually been 'a mere appendage to a machine' fully understand the boring,

repetitious, tedious, brain-numbing reality involved, consequently this attitude consists of something like the fallowing, work is an evil necessity, the alternatives of which not doing it are even more evi1."

[Extract from a letter received from HarryJ

" Working to me were just a means to an end. It weren't a vocation it were just a thing to earn money you know, to make your life more tolerable when you weren't at work, so you put up wi' inconveniences at worK to make your life more tolerable when you were at home lj the job itself weren't very pleasant, I had to start wearing ear plugs because of the noise, you know, and t'smell, you sweated to death in the summer and you were perished in t'wintert] your main objective when you got into work were watching clock and doing your job, earning your money watching clock and getting off home again" .

In Marxist terms, ail these men, with the partial exception of Tom Hodgson, an electrician, were strongly alienated from their work [cf.

Biauner, 1963] However, this alienation was not reflected in active

involvement in trade union activities, the political process or in male centred social activities. Work, in short was seen as little more than a necessary evil which was left at the work gates at the end of a shift. It was viewed as something which conferred a sense of comradeship and income, out little else. Contact with male friends outside of work certainly did occur but was limited. Leisure time was spent for the most part in the company of wives and children. Dot and Harry Atkins:

Dot: "We've iiked us home quite a lot, you spend a lot of money building up your home and 1 can't see why you should personally want to get away from it. I know there's those that do but we've always enjoyed us home."

Harry : "We used to go on holiday every year and we used to go as a family like round the countryside, we appreciate nature both of us, old buildings, history H we were never ones to sit around a lot, we always used to go to places of interest in the vicinity and we used to like that LJ other than that we've always been sort of homebirds really [] we've never been ones for drinking a lot. I Know that a lot of men, even those I worked with were always out boozing, but that were never my scene at ali...er...I enjoyed being at home with Dot that's all."

This account, and many others like it, suggest something untypical about the central life concerns of these men and women. There was a strong sense of commitment and responsibility by the men towards their wives and children and a very weak attachment to work and involvement in the union or politics. This impression is further illustrated in section IV : 2 : 3

The Staff Group.

This group represents a distinct status group. All of these women and men have 'moved up' the occupational and social ladder and in terms

of income, lifestyle and self definition, are very much part of the

middle classes. Although, starting work as blue collar trainees in five

out of seven cases, all of these men have achieved senior positions in B.S.C. It cannot be stressed too strongly how unusual it was in the 1950's ior working class teenagers to move into white collar professional career streams. It is difficult to answer precisely 'why' these men did 'get on' in life, coming from similar backgrounds. All were by self definition 'bright' at school and highly motivated. This group are an early example of the upward mobility made possible in Britain post World War 11, which Klein top.cit] had pointed to, and which was to be studied by many sociologists in the 1960's teg: Goidthorpe and Lockwood, IWbo'J .

The diagram below illustrates the career paths of these men . Figure 8 : Career Paths of the Staff Group LOver 55sl Terry White: [Army Officer} Ken Murphy: [Miner] Arthur Butcher: [Steelworker] Metallurgist 3

Quaiixy Control Metallurgist 7; Customer Services Managerl4. Apprentice Glass Maker [2J;

Trainee Electrician L2J; Fitter L3J; Apprentice Draughtsman/Draughtsman 10; Project Engineer 12

Scrap Lad 2; Shearer 4;

Rational Service t 4J;

Catering L6J; Bar Examiner; 7 Despatch Foreman 6;

Ass. Plant Manager 7; Senior Quality Control Manager 10

Edward Philips: [Raval Officer]

Frances Adams:

[Father's Last Job] (x> =■ Years Outside B

Clerk l

2J;

£23;

Naval Service [4]

Senior Clerk 1; Foreman 11; Senior Staff Manager 20 Trainee Chartered Accountants];

Technical Trainee 5; Technical Instructor 16; Craft Instructor 5;

Senior Training Instructorl5 [1.Counsellor] Apprentice Fitter 2; National Service [4j Engineer -Australia] [73; Contract Electrician [23; Planning Engineer 15. Errand Boy [2];

General Labourer and Welder £2] Army [ 4]; Undertaker £ 15]; Fireman £ 7];

Security Guard 20;

Senior Security Officer 7.

Bold Text = Final Job

.S.C. x = Years In B.S.C.]

The move from • works* to * staif ’ was, at this time, almost unheard of in the steel industry.as Ken Murphy recalled:

"It was the first time it had ever been done. There was myself and another lad l3 who were picked out from the Apprentices of the English Steel Corporation and approached with a view to going into the Design Office U there was a certain amount of, I think,

resentment with the staff in the Design Office, in the Drawing

Officee because of this. You was associating with lads who had come from Public School L 3 and you were a scrubber who had come out of the works at twenty years old, you know, and these lads who were, I suppose, Apprentice Draughtsmen had never been in the Works 13 they got the vacancy straight from school into the Drawing Office and there was no experience at all. I think it was a good thing actually; 1 think the experience that 1 gained in the Works stood me in damn good stead when it came to designing."

This pattern repeated itself for four of the men in this group, and for all the men bar Prances Adams, moving from one occupational stream to another involved both long hours at work and night school.Although this move required a great deal of hard work and goes some way to explaining the lack of involvement of these men in domestic work, the final reward was a much more expressive attitude towards the work they did, particularly later on in their careers.

An additional responsibility for the men in this group was of course the management of people. All felt that this was relatively unproblematic, particularly those who had worked their way up from the

shop floor, feeling that this experience made them better 'gaffers' and able to cope with both people and technical problems.

Their more expressive attitude towards their work not reflected in an extra familial leisure life amongst the men, with the partial exception of Edward Philips. This extract from Terry White was typical:

" I did enjoy my work, especially later on but that was about it. I was never one for forging great friendships at work, bringing people home and going to the pub together, it wasn't my scene at all I] really 1 liked to forget about it. 1 mean there's the other side isn't there with Freda and the children, especially when they were young...uhm. . . I enjoyed all that, you know, being with them wixhout V pressure and t !problems of work L J looking back all that hard work

4o mucd z q v them as it was for me."

Ken Murphy:

" Apart from going to keep fit classes which Edith did on her own, we have always gone on our own holidays together and we have always tended to keep together.t] it's generally been dancing you know. We did quite a bit of dancing up to a few years ago. As I say, we have always gone on our holidays together and whatever we have done we have generally been together. We - even [] we do gardening together. Earlier days I think 1 used to go to a football match but that's about the only time we were separated."

Thus, although occupationally upwardly mobile and professing a generally more expressive attitude towards work, this was not reflected in a work centred or male shared social life outside of work. Work, in

general terras, was still seen as a means to other ends, particularly in the enjoyment of shared leisure with wives and children, despite still traditional attitudes about the respective roles of men and women in life. These impressions are further reinforced when we come to look at the role played by political and religious beliefs in the family lives of these men and women.

IV : 9 : 4 The Influence of Political and Religious Consciousness on Vork and Family Life.

Only one man in the works group i Harry Atkins! has been a paid up member of a political party [Communist and Labour Parties!. He and Bert Gregory served as shop stewards at B.S.C. Hone of the women in this group have been paid up members of a political party, involved in trade union activities or local politics. I asked each respondent four- questions : a! who did you vote lor in 1952? b! who did you vote for in 1979? c! who will you vote for at the next general election? d! who will you vote for in any future local election?

The results were as follows t1985! :

Figure 9 : Voting Patterns of the Works Group [Over 55s!