Not the Boss of One Another

ABSTRACT

Historians, following contemporary sociologists, often describe how ‘traditional’ marriages were transformed as the working classes adopted the middle-class ‘companionate’ style of marriage in the decades after the Second World War. However, interviews conducted with working-class Hull couples who married between the 1920s and the 1960s revealed that many aspects associated with the ‘companionate marriage’ model long pre-dated the post-war years. Despite fulfilling different roles, these couples loved and supported each other, enjoyed fairly equal status and made decisions jointly. This challenges the whiggish narrative of working-class marriage being gradually enhanced by the adoption of middle-class values.