' Ourselves alone ' ? : the work of single women in South Australia, 1911-1961 : the institutions which they shaped and which shaped them

Abstract

This thesis investigates the work of life-long single women in South Australia between 1911 and 1961. Its argument is that, to achieve their work objectives, these women had to both contest and collude with the dominant ideologies, and institutional controls which disadvantaged them. The thesis asserts that this examination of a group of life-long single women undermines the stereotype of lonely, useless spinsters. Three themes were investigated in this study. The first was the challenge of accommodating the heterogeneity of single women's work, the number of institutions which shaped their occupational choices, and where and how they worked. The second was revealing the extent to which life-long single women both subverted and supported the ideologies of the period 1911 to 1961 to achieve their work objectives. The third theme was to show the power of institutions to incorporate within their structures, organisational cultures and work practices the dominant ideologies. Because the women were linked by their unmarried state, not their occupations, the study integrates the labour force statistics and institutional histories with the personal life and work histories of a group of life-long single women. Apposite developments in Feminist History, Labour History and Organisational Theory, as well as the particular characteristics of South Australia have informed this analysis. Feminist History highlighted the importance of identifying the extent to which women both contested and colluded with the dominant ideologies. Labour History publications revealed the limited research on voluntary work and work done for religious reasons or to execute social responsibilities. Organisational Theory, in particular the field of Organisational Culture, fostered the investigation of single women's understanding of and negotiation with the dominant institutional cultures of the period. This research demonstrates that the life-long single women studied here needed to and did test the boundaries of women's work in South Australia between 1911 and 1961. The small achievements of these single women provided for the next generation an example of the strengths and weaknesses of negotiation and conciliation to improve women's access to and success in the paid workforce.