Education for the country girls: vocational education in rural Ireland 1930–1960

ABSTRACT

This article explores the position of rural women in Irish society during the period 1930–1960, focusing on their engagement with vocational education. Irish vocational education was organised and delivered in a way that was in keeping with a wider gendered ideology as represented in the policy discourse with gender-segregated training, the promotion of traditional domestic roles and a lack of a vision underpinning vocational training that would disrupt traditional gender roles. Rural women and girls did not directly contest this ideology but did push boundaries against the roles that were ascribed to them. This article builds on existing work in the field. Previous studies focused on curricular options and employment success rates of secondary educated girls compared with those who attended vocational education. This study extends that research through its specific focus on vocational education for rural girls, their attendance at day and evening classes and their employment opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Gendered ideologies
• vocational education
• rural women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ M. Clarke, ‘Education for Girls in Ireland: Secondary and Vocational Curricular Provision 1930–1960’, History of Education 45 (2015): 79–102.

² K. Anderson, ‘The Mother Country: Tracing Intersections of Motherhood and the National Story in Recent Canadian Historiography’, Atlantis 34 (2009): 121–31; A. Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Western Europe, 1890–1970 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); G. Bock and P. Thane, eds., Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s–1950s (London: Routledge, 1991); L. Brush, ‘Love, Toil and Trouble: Motherhood and Feminist Politics’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 21 (1996): 429–54.

³ D. Fink, Agrarian Women: Wives and Mothers in Rural Nebraska, 1880–1940 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1992).

⁴ J. Little, ‘Gender Relations in Rural Areas: The Importance of Women’s Domestic Role’, Journal of Rural Studies 3 (1987): 335–42.

⁵ K. Hunter and P. Riney-Kehrberg, ‘Rural Daughters in Australia, New Zealand and the United States: An Historical Perspective’, Journal of Rural Studies 18 (2002): 135–43.

⁶ Ibid., 136.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ N. Verdon, ‘Agricultural Labour and the Contested Nature of Women’s Work in Interwar England and Wales’, Historical Journal 52 (2009): 109–30.

¹¹ Ibid., 120.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ L. Ryan, ‘Negotiating Modernity and Tradition: Newspaper Debates on the “Modern Girl” in the Irish Free State’, Journal of Gender Studies 7 (1998): 181–97.

¹⁵ Ibid., 183.

¹⁶ Ibid.

¹⁷ T. O Donoghue, The Catholic Church and the Secondary School Curriculum in Ireland, 1922–1962 (New York: Peter Lang, 1999); B. Titley, Church, State and the Control of Schooling in Ireland (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1983).

¹⁸ Ryan, ‘Negotiating Modernity and Tradition’, 184.

¹⁹ The 1927 Juries Act and the Conditions of Employment Act 1936 is further evidence of the legislation, which limited married women’s right to participate in the public sphere and in paid employment outside the home.

²⁰ Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution of Ireland, is the basic law of Ireland and came into operation on 29 December 1937.

²¹ M. Clarke, ‘The Response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Introduction of Vocational Education in Ireland 1930–1942’, History of Education 41 (2012): 477–93.

²² M. G. Valiulis, ‘Power, Gender and Identity in the Irish Free State’, Journal of Women’s History 6 (1995): 117–36; E. Kiely and M. Leane, Irish Women at Work 1930–1960 (Newbridge: Irish Academic Press, 2012).

²³ The 1927 Juries Act and the Conditions of Employment Act 1936 is further evidence of the legislation, which limited married women’s right to participate in the public sphere and in paid employment outside the home.

²⁴ M. Daly, Women and Work in Ireland (Dublin: Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1997), 31.

²⁵ F. Kennedy, Cottage to Crèche: Family Change in Ireland (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration), 150.

²⁶ C. Clear, Woman of the House: Women’s Household Work in Ireland 1922–61 (Newbridge: Irish Academic Press, 2000).

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ J. Redmond, ‘“Sinful Singleness”? Exploring the Discourses on Irish Single Women’s Emigration to England, 1922–1948’, Women’s History Review 17 (2008): 455–76.

²⁹ Ibid., 457.

³⁰ L. Ryan, ‘Moving Spaces and Changing Places: Irish Women’s Memories of Emigration to Britain in the 1930s’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 29 (2003): 67–82.

³¹ Ibid., 70.

³² Redmond, ‘“Sinful Singleness”’, 457.

³³ M. E. Daly, ‘Women and Land: The Historical Dimension’, Irish Journal of Sociology 7 (1997): 118–23.

³⁴ Kiely and Leane, Irish Women at Work 1930–1960. This exploration of Munster women’s experience in the workplace is based on the oral histories of 42 women, representing a broad spectrum of generational, social and employment backgrounds. See Clear, Woman of the House; E. Mahon, ‘Ireland: A Private Patriarchy?’, Environment and Planning 26 (1994): 1277–96; M. E. Daly, ‘Women in the Irish Workforce from Pre-Industrial To Modern Times’, Saothar 7 (1981): 74–82.

³⁵ S. Shorthall, ‘The Dearth of Data on Irish Farm Wives: A Critical Review of the Literature’, Economic and Social Review 22 (1991): 311–32.

³⁶ Shorthall, ‘The Dearth of Data on Irish Farm Wives’, 313.

³⁷ C. Arensberg and S. Kimball, Family and Community in Ireland, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968); H. Brody, Inishkillane – Change and Decline in the West of Ireland (London: Penguin, 1973); J. Messenger, InisBeag-Isle of Ireland (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969); P. Gibbon, ‘Arensberg and Kimball Revisited’, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 479–98; D. Hannan and L. Katsiaouni, Traditional Families? From Culturally Prescribed to Negotiated Roles in Farm Families (Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute, 1977).

³⁸ A. Bourke, S. Kilfeather, M. Luddy, M. Mac Curtain, G. Meaney, M. Ní Dhonnchadha, M. O’Dowd and C. Wills, eds., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Volumes IV and V: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions (Cork: Cork University Press, 2002). The works of Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, John McGahern, Brian Friel, Brian Moore and Edna O’Brien all provide insights from different periods.

³⁹ Shorthall, ‘The Dearth of Data on Irish Farm Wives’.

⁴⁰ Arensberg and Kimbell, Family and Community in Ireland, 40.

⁴¹ Shorthall, ‘The Dearth of Data on Irish Farm Wives’, 315.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Brody, Inishkillane – Change and Decline in the West of Ireland, 50.

⁴⁴ Fairs and outdoor markets were once a very common feature of Irish towns and cities.

⁴⁵ Cuaird is a Gaelic term meaning ‘visit’. In this context it refers to a meeting.

⁴⁶ Kiely and Leane, Irish Women at Work 1930–1960, 69.

⁴⁷ P. McNabb, ‘Social Structure’, in The Limerick Rural Survey 1958–1964, ed. J. Newman (Tipperary: Muintir na Tire Rural Publications, 1964), 193–247.

⁴⁸ Kiely and Leane, Irish Women at Work 1930–1960, 70.

⁴⁹ Kiely and Leane, ‘Female Domestic and Farm Workers in Munster’, 150.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Daly, ‘Women and Land’, 118.

⁵² M. Kennedy,’ Opportunity for Rural Youth’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 49 (1960): 194–200.

⁵³ E. O’Leary, ‘Teenagers, Everyday Life and Popular Culture in 1950s Ireland’ (PhD thesis, Maynooth University, Ireland, 2013).

⁵⁴ M. Clarke, ‘The Development of Vocational and Technical Education in Ireland, 1930–2015’, in Essays in the History of Irish Education, ed. B. Walsh (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 297–319.

⁵⁵ Under the Vocational Education Act, local Vocational Education Committees were established to administer schools where they were established. Under Section 31, the newly established Vocational Education Committees (VECs) were required to consider representations made by people in the catchment areas who had educational experience, or who were involved in trades and manufacturing. Membership of the committees also included local politicians.

⁵⁶ M. Clarke, ‘The Response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Introduction of Vocational Education in Ireland 1930–1942’, History of Education41, no. 4 (2012): 477–93.

⁵⁷ Clarke, ‘The Response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Introduction of Vocational Education in Ireland 1930–1942’, 481.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ Clarke, ‘Education for Girls in Ireland’, 85.

⁶¹ Dail Debates November 1946, DD 565.

⁶² Clarke, ‘Education for Girls in Ireland, 86.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ Clarke, ‘The Development of Vocational and Technical Education in Ireland, 1930–2015’, 302.

⁶⁶ Census of Population of Ireland 1966 – Preliminary Report (Pr.9049).

⁶⁷ Report of the Department of Education, 1953–1954, Pr. 3153: 20.

⁶⁸ Report of the Department of Education, 1933–1934, P. No. 1693: 192.

⁶⁹ Report of the Department of Education, 1943–1944, P. No. 7070: 171–7.

⁷⁰ W. F. Kuentzel, ‘Comparing Rural Development Strategies in Four Irish Vommunities, 1930–2005’, Studies in Public Policy 24 (2008) [Policy Institute at Trinity College Dublin (www.policyinstitute.tcd.ie)]: 1–168.

⁷¹ V. Reynolds, County Development Teams and Rural Regeneration’, Rural Development in Ireland: A Challenge for the 1990s, ed. M. Murray and J. Greer (Aldershot: Avebury, 1993): 233–42.

⁷² Rural Home Economy Advisory Service Jun–Sept. 1962, Memorandum by the Minister for Agriculture about the Rural Home Economics Pilot Advisory Service, Department of the Taoiseach files, S.17318/62, Loc. NA.

⁷³ An Taoiseach is the Gaelic term for the Prime Minister.

⁷⁴ Rural Home Advisory Service Jun–Sept. 1962, Memorandum.

⁷⁵ ibid.

⁷⁶ ibid.

⁷⁷ Memorandum from the Department of Education to the Taoiseach’s Dept., re An Integrated Home Advisory Service for the Rural Family, Department of the Taoiseach files, S17318/62, Loc. NA.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Ibid.

⁸⁰ Minutes of Co. Leitrim VEC, March 1962.

⁸¹ Ibid.

⁸² Memorandum from the Department of Education to the Taoiseach’s Dept., re An Integrated Home Advisory Service for the Rural Family.

⁸³ Second Programme for Economic Expansion, paragraph 45.

⁸⁴ S. Hanrahan, ‘Women Working off the Farm: A Case of Economic Citizenship?’, in Gender Regimes, Citizen Participation and Rural Restructuring: Research in Rural Sociology and Development, ed. I. A. Morell and B. Bock (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007), 115–42.