Surplus Women - Genealogists' Forum

Olde Crone · #1 13-06-23, 11:42

I'm reading an interesting book about the "surplus" women, those who would never marry because of the lack of men after the first world war.

The 1921 census showed there were nearly 2 million unmarried women more than unmarried men. There was also a worry that the statisticians had "lost" nearly a million men since the 1911 census, over and above those killed in the Great War (about 700,000), although those "lost" men could probably be accounted for by those who had emigrated or were otherwise working abroad.

Of course I knew about the surplus women, both generally and personally, but this book does bring it right home. Something I didn't know about was the widely held contempt felt for these women particularly by men, lol, all the criticisers believing the women had chosen to stay single for "unnatural reasons".

I had a collection of Victorian "aunties" ( great aunts and great great aunts) most of whom never married because there weren't enough men to go round. Even as a child I pitied them, seeing them as somehow lesser, for reasons I couldn't have articulated. I am ashamed of myself. They were good, competent women who made the best of a bad job and never complained as far as I know. All worked at menial jobs because they hadn't been educated for work, just for being a wife and mother.

An interesting and thought-provoking book.

OC

Janet · #2 13-06-23, 19:15

That's indeed very interesting, OC. What's the title?

Olde Crone · #3 13-06-23, 19:53

Janet

The book is

Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson published 2007 by Viking. Also available as a BBC audio book.

ISBN- 978 1 405 64913 1 Hardcover
Or 978 1 405 64914 8 Softcover.

Enjoy!

OC

Janet · #4 13-06-23, 20:44

Thanks, OC.

Margaret in Burton · #5 13-06-23, 22:29

I’ve just downloaded it to my iPad. Thanks OC

Katarzyna · #6 14-06-23, 11:01

Unfortunately, it's no longer available to download from the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007wbq5

Phoenix · #7 14-06-23, 11:51

On one side, when I was growing up, "the aunties" - a retired school teacher and her sister who kept house. On the other side, a widower, whose housekeeper was his sister in law.

Elsie was left a childless widow in November 1918. Her sister had a settled life with a husband and two daughters. Elsie had to go out to work to make ends meet, and after her parents died seemed to live a peripatetic life style; certainly from the various addresses she appears at on electoral rolls. Difficult to get inside the skull of someone my grandmother's age, but she always struck me as cheerful, resourceful and pragmatic. And she lived till her hundreth year.

Jill · #8 14-06-23, 12:56

The housing association where I live is an estate of a little over 400 addresses built in the 1930s and includes several blocks of 4 bedsits which were intended for these single women. There was a bedsitting room, a separate tiny galley kitchen and a tiny bathroom with a toilet and smaller than normal bath. They were expected to wash in the kitchen sink.

Roll on to the 1980s and when we applied to the association we were put in one, and had to have a fold up bed. We moved out 6 weeks after our first baby was born.

Glen TK · #9 12-07-23, 20:09

My grandmother was married in the early 1900's. Her husband divorced her in the early 1920's on the grounds of adultery with a named co-respondent 'and others' dating back to the period he was called up to serve in the army. DNA results suggest she was certainly creative when it came to accurately naming the father(s) of the children she had both during wartime and the years afterwards. Maybe the statisticians should have approached her for help locating the 'lost' men, she seemed to know how to attract them lost or otherwise.

Olde Crone · #10 12-07-23, 21:12

Ah, but did any of them marry her though?!

OC