Temporal Rhythms of Daily Life in 1937
The most notable difference between 1937 and 2000 was the amount of work (both paid and unpaid) conducted by women; the few mentions of time outside of domestic work were presented as fleeting moments of rest. This was illustrated by the extent to which paid and domestic work dominated the Saturday diaries. Table 3.2 provides a summary of all reported leisure activities for the total sixty-three observers on Saturday, 12 June.
Despite it appearing that, on average, each diarist enjoyed a leisure activity on the Saturday, and that eight of the fourteen sampled diarists stated Saturday to be a ‘day of leisure’, when leisure activities are read within context it becomes clear they were allocated around a variety of work practices. The breakdown of leisure practices for the entire sample appears relatively bountiful. However, when those practices are read within the context of each diary, moments of leisure, like for the Monday diaries, appeared fleeting or ‘snatched’. Consider the complete diary for Saturday, 12 June (1937) of Mrs Beken (a married housewife with four children who lived in Kent and whose husband was a farm labourer).
54
Dale Southerton