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Abstract

The Society of Housing Managers. formed from the women trained by Octavia Hill, is not well known, though it played a prominent part in housing management from the 1930s onwards.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the hypothesis that the Society of Housing Managers played a substantial role in encouraging the employment of trained women in housing from 1912 to the post- war period. It is further suggested that the ending of an all female Society and its subsequent amalgamation with the Institute of Housing in 1965 was one factor in weakening the position of women in housing employment, although other factors contributed.

A major source of evidence used is depth interviews carried out with members of the committee who dealt with unification between the Society and the Institute, as well as interviews with other women managers. Some of these informants supplied early, often unique, documents. The Minute Books of the Society and other records not hitherto documented were also important as were Public Record Office papers, contemporary journals and secondary historical sources.

Statistical data centres around a detailed analysis by gender of the Institute of Housing membership records and two major surveys carried out by the City University and the NFHA using unpublished as well as the published data. An additional small survey was done of women's employment in allied professional organisations.

It is concluded that the Society of Housing Managers played a crucial role in drawing women into housing employment in the 1930s and thus opened up opportunities for women in the; expansion of public housing during the second world war and after. However some disadvantages may have been incurred by separate organisation. In comparison. women in the 1980s have had some success in combining separate women's networks with membership of a mixed Institute.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Policy & Global Affairs > School of Policy & Global Affairs Doctoral Theses School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology

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