“Looking after the Babes”: Class, Gender, and the Nature of Scientific Improvement – a case study of the Aylesbury Duck Industry circa 1820-1920.

Abstract

The Aylesbury duck industry involved women and men of all classes and social status. However, most of its workforce were poor, cottage women who produced Aylesbury ducklings as a luxury product within their homes. The nineteenth century witnessed rising debates and tensions between what was considered the ‘proper’ role of women and the value of their work. By seeking to recover the history of the Aylesbury duck industry this thesis offers new perspectives on women’s work and the often-problematic intersections between authority, gender, class, and knowledge.

The first two chapters explore women’s work in Buckinghamshire, the organisation of the Aylesbury duck industry, and the technology used. Women were adaptable and inventive in responding to changing employment opportunities in and out of the home. The Aylesbury duck industry was partly organised on a putting-out basis, this increased its invisibility and encouraged the re-purposing of household tools and local foods to produce ducklings.

The second two chapters consider formal education in schools and technical colleges compared to the informal education offered through agricultural associations, horticultural societies, and cottage gardening societies. These chapters demonstrate how women were directed towards ‘domestic science’ and away from agriculture as the Aylesbury duck industry became increasingly associated with moral and physical diseases and women’s supposed neglect of the family. Both the formal and informal education routes reveal an increasing hostility towards women working outside of the home and within the Aylesbury duck industry. This opposition correlated with an expansion of the Aylesbury duck industry and the appropriation of women’s craft-based skills by male, scientific ‘experts’.

Finally, the industry’s decline is examined. Usually portrayed as a failure of poor husbandry and resistance to technological change, the thesis reveals the central role of changing consumer tastes and demand as major factors.