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Being a Man, Being a Member: Masculinity and Community in Britain’s Working Men’s Clubs, 1945–1960

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Hall, Richard 

Abstract

By 1960, there were more than 3,500 working men’s clubs in Britain, with a combined membership of more than two million people. This article explores their post-war transformation from small homosocial enclaves for drinking and bar-games to larger family-oriented entertainment venues, as they continued to provide social, welfare and educational activities for local communities. Operating on the boundaries of public and private life, they remained alternative sites of domesticity to the home, in which men nurtured relations with both friends and family. Nevertheless, though women and children came to represent a significant presence in the clubs, their cultures remained largely patriarchal and discriminatory. I argue that working men’s clubs provided important sources of agency, community and continuity for their members, during a period of social and cultural change.

Description

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2016.1237798

Keywords

masculinity, leisure, domesticity, family, community

Journal Title

Cultural and Social History

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1478-0038
1478-0046

Volume Title

Publisher

Informa UK Limited