The everyday lives of the white South African housewives

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to obtain an impression of the 'interior lives of English and Afrikaans housewives, as portrayed by two woman's magazines - one English and one Afrikaans - which were in print in South Africa between 1918 and 1945. The quotidian activities of white South African housewives: their attempts to look after their families, their diets and beliefs surrounding nutrition, their concerns about society, what they wore and why they wore it, their routines inside the home and expectations of domestic life, their leisure time, hobbies and the ideologies supporting their actions are its chief concerns. Die Huisvrou and Mrs. Slade's GoodSouth African Housekeeping are the magazines used as primary sources to inform this work.They were chosen because both are specifically addressed to housewives and have not previously been utilised. The study of these magazines therefore provides a unique opportunityto compare womanhood and the spheres of ordinary life in these two cultures in a novel manner.Despite historical attention being paid to Afrikaans women as volksmoeders and participants in public and political spheres, the domestic realm of housewives in both cultural groups hasremained largely untouched. Examining the details of the everyday lives of housewives in a specific historical context creates an opportunity to explore various aspects of women's lives as well as the impact of the private sphere on constructing a history of South Africa.It is revealed that while the histories of Afrikaners and Anglophones are commonly considered to have emerged in opposition to each other, especially in the wake of the South African War (1899-1902), comparisons between the lives of housewives provide an opportunity to establish that most of these women's daily activities were very similar and transferable between the two cultures. Both English and Afrikaans housewives were expected to care for their spouses, rearchildren, feed their families, be knowledgeable about food preparation and nutrition, clean and look after their physical appearances. Both also had access to cheap labour in the home to make their practical duties easier. More intriguingly, the pressures produced by events such as the World Wars, social changes and rapid industrialisation in South Africa affected, and in some cases, were perceived to be threatening, home life. External events and disturbances in societyclearly resulted in reactionary responses within the magazines. A modification of divorce laws in the 1930s, for instance, created an atmosphere of panic in Die Huisvrou as women feared the demise of family life. As a result, pressures were put onto unmarried women to spend their time preparing for marriage and home life as opposed to joining the workforce for economic reasons. This investigation reveals the details of the lives of white South African housewives, and recognises the impacts that women's activities within the domestic sphere had on societyoutside of the home and vice versa. Through comparing Afrikaans and English housewives, it is also established that women in both cultures held similar beliefs about family and society which were at the centre of their lives. Both were motivated by the philosophy that the success of a society primarily relied on the strength and success of each individual family's home life within that society.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University