03.09.07
A Woman’s World in 1902
Look what I found! I picked up this 1902 almanac at an antique book fair this week. It is packed with the lovliest images of most everything a respected housewife would need to know in 1902: maps (both terrestrial and celestial), wheat varieties, bicycles, pipes, fashion, statues from Antiquity, furniture, jewelry, European rulers, theater seating charts… This reference for daily life is a window to another era, showing the past under a new light. I particularly love the kind of sources that unveil customs and habits – sources that simply answer the question, ‘what did regular people do back then?’
The section on health and remedies is particularly revealing. Sadly, we have not made any progress in curing the migraine headache (the recommended treatment is the same today: caffeine and staying far away from light). Nevertheless, modern medecine has proven that, contrary to the 1902 belief, smoking cigarettes (!) probably isn’t the best remedy for a cough or the flu.
The hair styles look complicated to do up every single day, but there was an easy solution to this time-consuming practice: in 1902, it was recommended that women wash their hair once a month (once a week for men). Women would probably leave their hairdo in.
The large calendar section was perhaps the most important for the reader’s role in the family: it was the wife’s job to keep track of the household budget, so each day she wrote down expenses and earnings. At the beginning of each month are ideas for family meals, which was a serious financial responsability. The yearly proportion of earnings that went to food in 1902 is significantly larger than it is today. Food was by far the biggest expenditure: 4 1/2 months of salary per year were spent on it, compared to 2 months of salary for rent, and just 10 days of salary spent on taxes. Other expenditures:
1 1/2 months for “la bonne” (the servant)
1 month for up-keep
1 month for savings
1 month for children’s education
15 days spent on heat
5 days devoted to “les plaisirs” (pleasures)
While I am focusing on the Fin-de-Siècle and Belle Epoque for my dissertation, I have worked extensively on the interwar period as well, which is characterized by a great concern with dropping birthrates. So much has been written about pronatalism in the 1920s and 1930s, I was somewhat suprised to note the same concern in the 1902 almanac (by the way, France pushed a pronatalist policy into the 1980s). I have included this page below, entitled “La Frace sans enfants.” Note the proverb at the bottom: “Household without children, vine without branch.” With all the homemaker had to keep up with in daily life, between theater visits, social calls, sewing, horse and dog shows, agricultural salons, and letter-writing (there is a whole section on that, including handwriting analysis), it is no wonder she couldn’t find time to produce a soccer team of children.
screamish said,
March 9, 2007 at 5:54 pm
4 and a half months on food…
Apparently the price of food in Western Europe has actually gone down in recent years…I’m not sure if that’s correct.
Perhaps in relation to the incredible rent and static salaries in France at the moment?
megan said,
March 10, 2007 at 8:16 am
Eww, a month without washing your hair? Seriously, if I go more than a day, mine looks dirty. I don’t know if it is because I am blond or fine hair or what, but one can see that it is darker and greasier. A lot of French women seem to wash their hair less, like every other day or once a week, but perhaps they can get away with it because theirs is darker and/or thicker.
I think I read somewhere that the US poverty line basis was based on 1920’s or so calculations, where food was much more expensive than rent. Then when they wanted to update the calculations, taking into account that rent is now much more expensive than food, a lot more people would fall below the poverty line.
rachel said,
March 10, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Food prices here do seem to be reasonable these days, especially compared to New York! I can’t imagine spending that much money on food anywhere, though. Rent has gotten out of control, though.
About the hair: I wonder if you were blond, if you powdered it or something? I agree, I can’t go more than a day or two without washing my hair, and mine is dark!
Grace said,
March 25, 2007 at 7:59 am
you can train your hair! it takes a few tries, but all in all it is better for it. i first discovered this in my travels. 2 and 3 days between washings with product to dry it out and its all good. keep digging for the dirt on those frenchies!