Border crossings: reflections on women's lives in twentieth-century Britain

Resumen

AbstractThere has been a growing focus on personal life, memoir and autobiography in feminist writing, and in the social sciences more generally, in recent years. Feminist geographers, among others, argue that family relationships and personal recollections should be part of studies of the construction of personal identity and a sense of place. I combine this argument with research into women's labour market participation to explore the changing significance of waged work in British women's lives over the last century, seen through the personal lens of three generations of women's experiences of migration across geographical and class boundaries.El cruce de fronteras: reflexiones sobre las vidas de las mujeres en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XXEn los últimos años se ha puesto cada vez más atención en la vida personal, las memorias y la autobiografía en la escritura feminista y, más ampliamente, en las ciencias sociales. Las geógrafas y los geógrafos feministas, entre otros, argumentan que las relaciones familiares y los recuerdos personales deberían ser parte de los estudios de la construcción de la identidad personal y del sentido del lugar. Yo combino este argumento con investigación sobre la participación de las mujeres en el mercado laboral, para explorar la importancia cambiante del trabajo asalariado en las vidas de las mujeres de Gran Bretaña a lo largo del último siglo, desde la óptica personal de las experiencias de migración de tres generaciones de mujeres a través de fronteras geográficas y de clase.跨越边界:反思二十世纪英国女性的生活近年来,女性主义书写与更广泛的社会科学,逐渐聚焦于私人生活、回忆录与自传。女性主义地理学者及其他学者皆主张,家庭关係与个人回忆应属于个人身份认同及地方感建构研究的一部分。我将此一主张与女性的劳动市场参与研究相互结合,透过三代女性跨越地理和阶级边界的移民经验之个人视角,探讨过去一世纪以来,英国女性生活中,给薪工作转变中的重要性。Keywords:: personal lifeautobiographygenerationswaged workhomeManchesterPalabras claves:: vida personalautobiografíageneracionestrabajo asalariadohogarManchester关键词:: 私人生活自传世代给薪工作家曼彻斯特 AcknowledgementsA version of this article was given as a lecture to the School of Environment and Development, Manchester University on 26 October 2011. I am grateful to Kevin Ward and his colleagues for inviting me and to the social scientists at the talk who asked questions that helped me rethink this article. I also found Vicky Lawson to be encouraging when she read an earlier version. I thank three anonymous referees who made a significant difference to the article through their generous suggestions about changes. For those students forced to write an essay about my work as part of their 'ideas and methods' courses, I hope that this narrative will be useful. Finally, although my sisters, Judith and Kate, do not necessarily endorse this narrative, it has marked a new beginning in the discussion of how and where our lives converge and diverge.Additional informationNotes on contributorsLinda McDowellLinda McDowell is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include gender divisions of labour and migration into the UK at different periods, as well as youth unemployment. Linda's most recent book is Working Lives: Gender, Migration and Employment in Britain, 1945–2007 (Wiley-Blackwell 2013).