Juventud, género y clase en la Inglaterra de entreguerras

Abstract

The interwar years were central to the development of ‘youth’ in England. At the beginning of the period, young people’s political enfranchisement was limited, their educational and employment opportunities restricted —particularly for women— and they had only limited leisure time. By 1939, political citizenship had been extended, and employment and leisure opportunities had increased. This article examines these changes, arguing that the prevailing historiographical focus on young people’s leisure has neglected the impact of wider economic, social and political developments on their lifestyles, family relations and status. Young people played an important economic role in working class families, undermining representations of them as feckless and irresponsible, stereotypes which are shown to have arisen from wider middle class political and social anxieties. These concerns were partially prompted by young people’s ability to take advantage of political, economic and social developments to articulate a distinctive, generational, social —and at times political— identity. In doing so, young people acted as agents of social and economic change within workplaces, working class households and the wider community.