Demons of Domesticity

Informationen zum Autor Anne Clendinning, Nipissing University, Canada. Klappentext Women first found employment with the English gas industry, not as clerical workers, but as professional demonstrators and publicists. Nicknamed 'lady demons', short for lady demonstrators, these certified cookery teachers instructed ladies, servants and working-class housewives how to use and maintain gas cookers and appliances. Demons of Domesticity considers the development of employment opportunities for women in the English gas industry from the 1880s to the 1930s, with a particular emphasis on the city of London and the Home Counties. It addresses the corresponding expansion and diversification of the industry's marketing strategies, and the important role played by women, as both purveyors and consumers of domestic utility services. Demons of Domesticity increases our understanding of the shifting relationships between gender, work and consumerism, moving towards an appreciation of how discursive relationships construct popular perceptions of new and existing technologies. Zusammenfassung This study offers a social history of the English gas industry from the 1880s to the late 1930s. It documents the role that women played in its development by considering the expansion of sales and customer services occupations for women within the industry. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents: List of figures; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; The Victorian kitchen revolutionised; Exhibitions and the spectacle of selling; Lady demons and 'well-dressed men': gender and sales in the Edwardian gas industry; 'Keep the gas fires burning!': war and reconstruction; Marketing modernity: gas versus electricity between the wars; 'A women's industry': demonstrations of difference and equality; Conclusion; Biography; Index.

Auteur

Anne Clendinning, Nipissing University, Canada.

Texte du rabat

Women first found employment with the English gas industry, not as clerical workers, but as professional demonstrators and publicists. Nicknamed 'lady demons', short for lady demonstrators, these certified cookery teachers instructed ladies, servants and working-class housewives how to use and maintain gas cookers and appliances. Demons of Domesticity considers the development of employment opportunities for women in the English gas industry from the 1880s to the 1930s, with a particular emphasis on the city of London and the Home Counties. It addresses the corresponding expansion and diversification of the industry's marketing strategies, and the important role played by women, as both purveyors and consumers of domestic utility services. Demons of Domesticity increases our understanding of the shifting relationships between gender, work and consumerism, moving towards an appreciation of how discursive relationships construct popular perceptions of new and existing technologies.

Résumé
This study offers a social history of the English gas industry from the 1880s to the late 1930s. It documents the role that women played in its development by considering the expansion of sales and customer services occupations for women within the industry.

Contenu

Contents: List of figures; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; The Victorian kitchen revolutionised; Exhibitions and the spectacle of selling; Lady demons and 'well-dressed men': gender and sales in the Edwardian gas industry; 'Keep the gas fires burning!': war and reconstruction; Marketing modernity: gas versus electricity between the wars; 'A women's industry': demonstrations of difference and equality; Conclusion; Biography; Index.