Table Of ContentA Thing of the Past?
A Thing of the Past?
Child Labour in Britain
in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
edited by Michael Lavalette
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 1999 by
Liverpool University Press
Senate House, Abercromby Square
Liverpool L69 3BX
Copyright © Liverpool University Press 1999
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A British Library CIP record is available
ISBN 0 85323 634 8 cased
ISBN 0 85323 644 5 paper
Typeset by Northern Phototypesetting Co. Ltd, Bolton, UK
Printed and bound in the European Union by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow
Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction: Child Labour – A Thing of the Past?
Michael Lavalette 1
Part 1 The Theoretical Context of Child Labour Research 9
Editor’s Introduction 11
1 The ‘New Sociology of Childhood’ and Child Labour:
Childhood, Children’s Rights and ‘Children’s Voice’
Michael Lavalette 15
2 Theorizing Children at Work: Family, State and Relations
of Production in Historical Context
Michael Lavalette 44
Part 2 Child Labour in British History 69
Editor’s Introduction 71
3 Child Labour and British Industrialization
Sara Horrell and Jane Humphries 76
4 The Historic Viability of Child Labour and the Mines Act
of 1842
Peter Kirby 101
5 The Changing Form of Child Labour circa1880–1918:
The Growth of ‘Out of School Work’
Michael Lavalette 118
6 The Problem that Doesn’t Exist? Child labour in Britain
1918–1970
Stephen Cunningham 139
Part 3 Contemporary Issues 173
Editor’s Introduction 175
vi Contents
7 Child Work in the UK 1970–1998
Madeleine Leonard 177
8 A Peculiarly British Phenomenon? Child Labour in the
USA
Jim McKechnie 193
9 Honoured in the Breach: Child Employment Law in
Britain
David Cornwell, Katya Graham and Sandy Hobbs 216
10 Unenforced or Unenforceable? A View from the Professions
Ben Whitney 231
Conclusion
Michael Lavalette 249
Bibliography 255
Index 274
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Contributions to income over the family life-cycle 84
3.2 Schematic representation of the effect of labour market
opportunities on children’s participation trends 93
Tables
3.1 Children’s contribution to household income 82
3.2 Children’s labour force participation by father’s
occupation 85
3.3 Children’s jobs 87
3.4 Age of first participation 88
3.5 Children’s earnings as a percentage of father’s earnings 90
3.6 Probig equations of individual children’s participation 93
3.7 Contributions to income and participation in
female-headed households 95
4.1 Proporations of coal-miners by age groups, 1841 105
4.2 Seam height and percentages of age groups employed,
male coal-miners, west Yorkshire pits, 1841 105
4.3 Ages of trappers in 14 collieries, South Durham, 1841 110
4.4 Proportions of explosions due to an interruption of
ventilation, 1836–43 and 1843–50 110
4.5 Mean age at which boys started work in different
underground occupations by coal district, 1841 113
5.1 Census data on child workers, 1851–1911 124
5.2 Return of elementary school children working for
wages, 1902 132
5.3 Inter-Departmental estimates of child labourers, 1902 133
6.1 Numbers of school children aged 12–14 employed, 1931 151
viii List of Figures and Tables
6.2 Occupation of school children employed, 1931 152
6.3 Numbers of school children employed, 1939 and 1944 161
6.4 Percentage of children employed, 1954–55, by gender,
type of school and income of father 165
6.5 Girls employed as a percentage of the total number of
children working 166
Contributors
David Cornwell is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Strathclyde
University, Jordanhill Campus.
Stephen Cunningham is Lecturer in Social Policy at the University
of Central Lancashire.
Katya Grahamis a solicitor with an interest in child employment law.
Sandy Hobbsis Reader in Psychology at the University of Paisley.
Sara Horrell is Lecturer in the faculty of Economics, Cambridge
University and fellow of New Hall.
Jane Humphries is Reader in Economic History, Oxford University
and fellow of All Saints College.
Peter Kirbyis Lecturer in History at the University of Manchester.
Michael Lavalette is Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the
University of Liverpool.
Madeleine Leonard is Lecturer in Sociology at Queens University,
Belfast.
Jim McKechnieis Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of
Paisley.
Ben Whitney works for the special services section of Staffordshire
Education Authority.
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the help and support
freely given by a number of people. First, I would like to thank each of
the contributors for meeting my deadlines and being patient while the
time-consuming editorial tasks were undertaken. Second, Robin
Bloxidge at Liverpool University Press was always supportive of the
project and very helpful with advice and suggestions. Third, a range of
people have commented on the drafts of my chapters and engaged in
debate with me over issues relating to child labour. Sandy Hobbs and
Jim McKechnie are contributors to this volume but are also long-time
friends and colleagues who have been writing about the topic with me
for the past ten years; we do not always agree but my continuing inter-
est in child labour is, in no small part, due to them. Two colleagues at
Liverpool, Barry Goldson, with whom I teach courses on childhood
and child labour, and Chris Jones, both read my chapters and made
useful comments and suggestions.
My ideas and motivations are shaped by my political activity and
in particular by the discipline and direction that comes from being an
active member of the Socialist Workers Party. A number of friends and
comrades from the SWP read and commented on my drafts and
helped clarify some of my ideas. I would like to thank John Rees, Lyn-
dsay German, Colin Barker, Iain Ferguson, Gerry Mooney and, in par-
ticular, my partner Laura Penketh. Needless to say none of these
people are responsible for what I have written.
Finally, while this book was being put together Saskia was born.
The demands made by her and her sister, Olivia, are great but they are
always worth it.
Michael Lavalette
November 1998
