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Semi-Detached Housing Changes

Decent Essays

In Britain there has historically always been a belief that the ideal living situation is a married heterosexual couple with children. In this lifestyle model the male of the house is the wage earner and the woman holds responsibility for domestic chores and rising children. This model is particular apparent in the working classes during the early 20th century. In the years following the Second World War housing was designed and master planned in a way that embodied these ideologies. These generalisations structured ideas about the location of new post war housing laying the way for married women to be exploited in the low pay labour market. However rapid social change following the war resulted in greater number of women being drawn into the …show more content…

These houses were amalgamation of retained social expectations of housework but also more progressive architectural ideas. The period saw great change thanks in part to the influence of the Garden City Movements and Raymond Unwin. Unwin semis featured additional living space on the ground floor, running hot water, internalised kitchen and bathing facilities. The extra living space on the ground floor provided an area for families to engage with everyday life and again a parlour in the front of the house to entertain with. The changed position of the kitchen to inside the house really demonstrates the change of gender perspective during this time, it lessened the separation of house tasks by bringing them closer to the family. The provision of hot running water, electricity and internal washrooms helped ease some of the labour of housework, beginning to liberate the housewife. It was however still expected that she would prepare and serve all foods. Therefor the housewife found herself in a funny situation of being both privileged with modern conveniences but still bound to being unseen doing her task in a small space as if a

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