Abstract
AbstractThe rise of living alone since the 1960s and women’s diversifying employment opportunities are signifiers of an accelerated individualisation of lives, with marked repercussions for urban housing markets. Yet early twentieth-century youth married later than baby boomers, and metropolitan urbanisation, combined with cultural and technological modernisation post-First World War, helped entrench single women in white-collar employment and legitimise them as urban consumers. In this article, we exploit microdata census samples for urban Canada, 1921–51, to document the living arrangements of young (15–29) single women clerical workers in these tumultuous decades of urban modernity. To what extent did they achieve residential independence by leaving their parents’ home to head their own household or share with a peer, inhabit the grey zones of boarding and lodging, or remain ‘dutiful daughters’ living at home? Comparisons with other occupations and print media coverage of the business girl’s aspirations and dilemmas assist us in interpretation.RésuméLa montée de la vie en solo depuis les années 1960 et la diversification des possibilités d’emploi pour les femmes sont les signifiants d’une individualisation accélérée des vies, avec des répercussions marquées sur les marchés immobiliers urbains. Cependant, les jeunes du début du vingtième siècle se mariaient plus tardivement que les baby boomers; et l’urbanisation métropolitaine, combinée à la modernisation culturelle et technologique qui a suivi la première guerre mondiale ont favorisé le retranchement des femmes célibataires dans des postes d’employées de bureau et leur légitimation en tant que consommatrices. Dans cet article, nous exploitons des échantillons de micro données de recensement pour le Canada urbain de la période 1921–51 pour documenter les modes de vie des femmes célibataires jeunes employées de bureau (15–29 ans) durant ces décennies tumultueuses de modernité urbaine. Dans quelle mesure sont-elles parvenues à atteindre l’indépendance résidentielle en quittant le domicile parental pour être à la tête de leur propre ménage, partager avec une camarade, habiter les zones grises de la location et de la pension ou à rester des ‘filles respectueuses’ vivant à la maison? La comparaison avec d’autres occupations professionnelles et les couvertures médiatiques des aspirations et dilemmes de l’employée de bureau nous aideront dans notre interprétation.
Highlights
Introduction and contextMajor Canadian cities of the 1960s to 1970s, like many of their counterparts in the Global North, saw the entry of large numbers of young unmarried baby boomers into the housing market as consumers in their own right, subject to the local housing supply context (Mulder and Dieleman 2002)
Beyond 30, they were likely to join the ranks of the long-term ‘ever-single’ (Tallentire 2006), and it is in this group that we find the highest percentages of single women in professional, managerial, and supervisory occupations, over the decades an increasing minority of female clerical workers would be in this older age group
Female clerical workers’ living arrangements and their implications for personal autonomy In Figure 2 we show that the distribution of living arrangements varied among young single women, overall and for the major occupations
Summary
Introduction and contextMajor Canadian cities of the 1960s to 1970s, like many of their counterparts in the Global North, saw the entry of large numbers of young unmarried baby boomers into the housing market as consumers in their own right, subject to the local housing supply context (Mulder and Dieleman 2002).
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