Constructing the domestic sphere: The emergence of the modern home in postwar Britain

Abstract

There appears to be widespread agreement that family and home life have been changing, and changing quite dramatically, over the last forty years or so. In essence, what has emerged is a new version of the domestic ideal that encapsulates changed expectations of family relations and housing conditions. As with all such constructions, within this consensus, factual and evaluative statements are run together, combining selective elements of what is with judgements about what ought to be (Davidoff et al., 1976). Thus, the contemporary domestic ideal contains notions about equality and companionship within marriage; it perceives children as being a focal life interest; and it sees the home as a comfortable, relaxed environment in which personally fulfilling family relationships can grow and develop. As sociologists have been at pains to show, domestic life rarely lives up to such aspirations. As well as housing these more desirable features, the home is also the site of conflict and tension, argument and abuse.