Being a Man,Being a Member: Masculinity and Community in Britain’s Working Men’s Clubs, 1945–1960* |
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| Authors: | Richard Hall |
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| Institution: | University of Sussex |
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| 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, while 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 rapid social and cultural change. |
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| Keywords: | Masculinity leisure domesticity family community |
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