1st Edition

London's Women Teachers Gender, Class and Feminism, 1870-1930

By Dina Copelman Copyright 1996
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    Dina Copelman's investigation of the public and private lives of women teachers reveals a strikingly different model of gender and class identity than the orthodox one constructed by historians of middle-class gender roles and middle-class feminism. Consequently, while the book focuses on women teachers from the beginning of state education in 1870 up to 1930, it is also an examination of how gender, class and professional identities were shaped and perceived. While offering a significant original contribution to the social history of teachers, this book is also driven by a consideration of broader historiographical questions.

    I: Contexts: Gender, Class and Professionalism; 1: Looking For Work; 2: Class and Career; II: Work: Teachers and The London School System; 3: ‘A Great Adventure'; 4: Classroom Struggles; 5: ‘We do not Think that a Teacher's Duty is to Produce a Mere Human Machine' Teachers and Teaching; III: Lives: The Job, Activities and Relationships; 6: Becoming a Teacher; 7: The Products of an Intense Civilization; 8: Serving Two Masters; IV: Politics: Professionalism and Feminism in the Early Twentieth Century; 9: Professional Politics and Feminist Aspirations; 10: Equal and Different

    Biography

    Dina Copelman