Hoggart -- Marriage and Family

In “The Uses of Literacy,” Richard Hoggart spends a good deal of time outlining the characteristics of the working-class family, particularly the roles of the father and mother. Many of his descriptions were very era-specific, and I found myself wishing he would explain how his descriptions of working-class families differed from those of the upper classes. While there is the obvious difference of occupation and leisure, most of Hoggart’s descriptions seem to revolve around traditional gender roles and how the working-class parents adhered to them. While the upper-class mother of 1957 presumably did not have to spend her entire day making the house “workable” (44), she was still locked in a submissive role to her husband. Hoggart says that for the working class, “the basic assumption is that the man is master of the house” (50). However, wasn’t the man the master of the upper-class house, as well? I would have appreciated some examples as to how the upper-class families operate, showing how the working-class wife is treated differently than the upper-class wife.

Hoggart does point out, however, that for the working-class family, many wives work in addition to their husbands and “come home from work just as tired as their husbands and ‘set to’ to do all the housework without help from them” (51). I believe that this is where the biggest difference would lie between working- and upper-class families. Hoggart is proposing that working-class wives take on both traditionally male and female roles by working outside and inside the home, whereas working-class husbands continue to maintain their traditional male roles. In fact, Hoggart points out that working-class women pride themselves on their heavy workload and would not want a husband who took on more traditionally feminine roles (45, 51). Hoggart explains this by hypothesizing that for working-class men and women, the institution of marriage itself is the end-goal. Working-class women believe it is their duty to get married, raise, and take care of a family, while working-class men believe that it is their duty to provide for and protect a family. Again, I would have like for Hoggart to compare this to upper-class views on marriage. Did the upper class not value marriage as much as the working class? How did upper-class gender roles reflect their marriage values?

In comparing Hoggart’s observations with modern-day families, I do not see that many differences. While we often pride ourselves on how much women’s roles have progressed, watching any one of TLC’s wedding shows (“Say Yes to the Dress” for example) will show that modern-day women are just as consumed with the idea of getting married as Hoggart’s working-class women of 1957. The main difference may be that today, the emphasis is placed on the wedding itself and the status of being a bride rather than on maintaining a successful marriage and family.