Journal of Education and Work

Vol. 18, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 451471

ISSN 1363-9080 (print)/ISSN 1469-9435 (online)/05/04045121
2005 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13639080500327824
Engineer, mechanic or carpenter? Boys
transitions to work in the 1960s
John Goodwin* and Henrietta OConnor
University of Leicester, UK
Taylor and Francis Ltd CJEW_A_132765.sgm 10.1080/13639080500327824 Journal of Education and Work 1363-9080 (print)/1469-9435 (online) Original Article 2005 Taylor & Francis 18 4000000December 2005 JohnGoodwin Centre for Labour Market StudiesUniversity of Leicester7 Salisbury RoadLeicesterLE1 7QRUKjdg3@le.ac.uk
In this paper, we seek to examine the gendered nature of boys school to work transitions for a group
of young male workers entering employment for the first time in the 1960s. We argue that such an
enquiry is important because past studies of transitions have not problematised boys school to work
transitions in terms of gender. Moreover, where gender has been employed as an analytical category,
it has been used as shorthand to describe the experiences of women. We draw upon data from
Norbert Eliass largely unknown Adjustment of young workers to work situations and adult roles
project to examine the boys experiences of the transition process in terms of reflections on school,
thinking about work, finding and adjusting to work and thinking about the future. Analysis of these
data reveals that young males do experience the transition to work as a gendered process and paid
employment confirms aspects of their male identity.
Introduction
If the beginning of the apprenticeship marked the end of childhood then to finish serving
your time was to enter into manhood. (McKinlay & Hampton, 1991, p. 2)
This paper aims to contribute to the debates on the gendered nature of school to work
transitions by using the data from Norbert Eliass lost Adjustment of young workers
to work situations and adult roles research project to examine how young males
experienced the transition process in the early 1960s. Having presented the girls
experiences of the transition from school to work elsewhere (OConnor & Goodwin,
2004), we examine how a group of 577 boys from Leicester felt about leaving school
in the early 1960s.
Discussions of boys experiences of the transition from school to work may not
appear to be a new aspect of social enquiry and, indeed, it has been argued that many
earlier studies on the transition from school to work focused almost exclusively on the
experiences of young males (Roberts, 1984; Griffin, 1985). Yet closer inspection of
*Corresponding author. Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester, 7 Salisbury
Road, Leicester LE1 7QR. Email: jdg3@le.ac.uk
452 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
the literature on youth transitions reveals that the actual experiences of boys often
remain hidden within broader class or education narratives. For example, studies
such as Carters (1962) and Ashton and Fields (1976) tended to concentrate on struc-
tural issues at the expense of exploring the individually complex and gendered tran-
sitions of the boys involved. As such, it has not usually been the transitional
experiences of boys per se that were of interest, but the experiences of young males as
members of certain class or educational groups. An additional problem occurs, in that
where gender has been specifically raised as an issue (Roberts 1984, p. 26), it has been
used as shorthand to describe the experiences of girls rather than to also problema-
tise boys gendered transitional experiences. Or, more simply, boys are used just as a
comparator. In many respects, this reflects the practice in social science research at
the time of interpreting gender studies to mean the study of women (Brod, 1987;
Goodwin, 1999).
In the next section of the paper, we provide an outline of the conceptual framework
that has informed this research and background information on the data used. A
secondary analysis of the 1960s data is then offered, revealing how the young males
experienced the transition process in terms of reflections on school, perceptions of
work, finding and adjusting to work and thinking about the future. In exploring these
data we place emphasis on their lived experiences of the transition process.
Conceptual framework: linking men and work
The process through which boys learn their gender identities has been the subject of
much research and is an area supported by an increasing body of literature which
argues that paid employment is linked with the very nature of mens identity
(Connell, 1995; Collinson & Hearn, 1996; Nilan, 2000; Goodwin, 2001; Haywood
& Mac an Ghaill, 2003). There is also an emerging literature on young mens social-
isation into work (Dennehy & Mortimer, 1993; Goodwin, 1999, 2002; Lloyd, 1999)
and their experiences of the transition from school to work as a gendered process
(McDowell, 2001; Paechter, 2003). These authors draw upon a range of theoretical
perspectives to explore and conceptualise the gendered nature of boys transitions,
including hegemonic masculinity (Haywood & Mac an Ghaill, 2003, Goodwin,
2002), communities of practice (Paechter, 2003), occupational socialisation (Lloyd,
1999) and multiple masculinities (Collinson & Hearn, 1996). The conceptual frame-
work informing the present discussion draw upon a number of these authors, as well
as others, including Elias (1998) and Wight (1993).
According to Goodwin (2002), Connells approach to masculinity is valuable, in
that it highlights the relational nature of its construction via interaction with other
masculinities and femininities. Central to this is the hegemonic masculinity, a
configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to
the problem of patriarchy which guarantees the dominant position of men
(Connell, 1995, p. 77). However, hegemonic masculinity is not fixed but defined
socially and historically, as Connell (1995) suggests, at any given time one form of
masculinity rather than others is culturally exalted (Connell, 1995, p. 77). Similarly,
Boys transitions to work 453
Elias (1998) emphasises the interdependent relationships between people and
groups as power relations (Smith, 2000, p. 191) and argues that gender relations
emerge via changes in power configurations throughout history. Goodwin (2002)
suggests that the current dominant form of hegemonic masculinity emphasises the
externality of men to the home and the clear association between being male and paid
employment. As Wight (1993) suggests, that the words work and men are continu-
ally merged in everyday speech (Wight, 1993, p. 101). Lloyd (1999, p. 26) confirms
the association between masculinity and paid work in his study of young men and the
labour market. He suggests that when the young males in his study were asked what
were the most important attributes and roles that defined a man, they identified
having a job, defending their family and being a good father.
A hegemony of masculinity organised around paid work and capitalism has impli-
cations for boys transitions from school to work and there are three interlinked,
gendered aspects of transition that are of interest in this paper. First, the transition
from school to work highlights and reinforces gendered vocational preferences. As
Harris (1995) argues, mens behaviours are shaped by environmental and social cues
from their families, friends, the media, schools and work colleagues. All of these cues
reinforce a mans gender identity within a specific culture at a specific point in time.
Families, and in particular fathers, have been highlighted in numerous studies as
being significant in boys transitional experiences (Carter, 1962; Maizels, 1970;
Ashton & Field, 1976; Harris, 1995). Following in fathers footsteps has been seen
as a significant issue in reinforcing hegemonic masculinity through the transition to
work. Indeed, fathers and other male relations have often been cited as being signifi-
cant in helping young males enter the labour market (Lloyd, 1999). Likewise, schools
reinforce different cultural values, dominant masculinity types, vocational prefer-
ences and, via the curriculum, link types of knowledge and skills with masculinities
and femininities (Willis, 1977; Dart & Clarke, 1988; Lloyd, 1999; Connell, 2000).
A second theme is that the transition from school to work is often experienced as
a confirmation of breadwinner ideology. The linkage between men and work is
often expressed by males in notions of breadwinning or providing for the family
and the male breadwinner versus the female homemaker model remains culturally
dominant in most Western economies. Although the breadwinner/homemaker
dualism has been questioned (Pollert, 1981; Griffin, 1985; Haywood & Mac an
Ghaill, 2003), youth transitions research has highlighted notions of breadwinning
as being important to young males entering work for the first time (Carter, 1962;
Maizels, 1970).
Finally, the transition from school to work reinforces an employment ethic among
boys that emphasises hard work and careers over and above familial aspirations.
Linked to the emergence of notions of the breadwinner, the employment ethic is
summarised by Wight (1993) as being mans ability to earn money for himself and
his family (Wight, 1993, p. 106). In exploring this theme, Wight (1993) differenti-
ates between the respectable and the wasters. He locates the employment ethic for
respectable males in hard work, being disciplined at work, in employment, having a
trade and having self-respect.
454 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
In the remainder of this paper, we seek to explore the extent to which these
gendered aspects of the transition process are apparent in the experiences of 577
young males who made the transition from school to work in the early 1960s.
The data
Approaching his final year as a Reader in the Department of Sociology at the University
of Leicester, Norbert Elias (1961, 1962a, 1962b) was successful in applying to the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) for a grant of 15,000 to
fund the research project Adjustment of young workers to work situations and adult
roles. Better known for books such as The civilising process (1939) and What is sociology
(1978), an application to carry out a large-scale, government-sponsored survey on
youth transitions may seem something of a departure for Elias. However, he was inter-
ested in how young people experienced work and adjusted their lives to the work role,
arguing that much of the early research on young people was adult centred, with adults
trying to apply their norms and values to young people. Elias stated that this project was:
concerned with the problems which young male and female workers encounter during
their adjustment to their work situation and their entry into the world of adults. When they
go to work, or begin to train for work, young workers have to make a wider adjustment to
a situation and to roles which are new to them, whose implications are often imperfectly
understood by them and by the adults concerned, and for which they are in many cases
not too well prepared. (Young Worker Project, 1962a, p. 2)
Data for the project were collected between 1962 and 1964 via semi-structured inter-
views with a sample of young people drawn from the Youth Employment Office index
of all Leicester school-leavers for the summer and Christmas of 1960 and the summer
and Christmas of 1962. The sample was divided into five subgroups and a target
sample of 1150 young people was identified. From the 1150 individuals, the research
team was successful in contacting 987, of whom 105 refused to be interviewed and
882 interviews were eventually completed.
The interview schedule did not cover gender issues specifically, but the young
workers were asked about home and family, future aspirations and career choices.
Although both girls and boys were included in the final sample, issues of gender were
not covered explicitly in the interview schedule, but during the course of the
interviews, themes around gender did emerge. Minutes from project meetings at
the time also reveal that gender was debated among the research team itself. Initially,
the idea was to exclude girls from the sample and disagreement over this proposition
is documented in the original minutes of meetings:
Are we going to confine the study to boys only? No. Too much has already been written
about male attitudes and too much generalisation about girls. We should investigate girls
also. There are certain differences between the adjustments of boys and girlsdifferent
attitudes because girls have the expectation of getting married and not going out to work.
(Young Worker Project, 1962b, p. 1)
With the exception of Ashton and Field (1976), who used a sample of the cases, most
of the data have never been fully analysed or published. Indeed, it was only with the
Boys transitions to work 455
recent rediscovery of 854 interview schedules that Eliass interest in the transition
from school to work emerged and the data have become available for secondary anal-
ysis. In 2001 funding for this research and the tracing and re-interview of respondents
was provided by the ESRC to ascertain what had actually happened to the respon-
dents. Using various tracing methods, 157 of the original respondents were found, of
whom 97 were re-interviewed. The re-interview covered many aspects of the respon-
dents lives since the original 1960s interview, including employment histories,
education and training, income and expenditure and home and family life.
Boys transitions from school to work
Leicesters economy in the 1960s was dominated by engineering, textiles and clothing
and footwear manufacture. Engineering was Leicesters leading employer, followed
by textiles and clothing and footwear manufacture. These industries were buoyant in
Leicester in the 1960s and, as Brooks and Singh (1978) report, Leicesters economy
was characterised by high employment and prosperity. The availability of relatively
well-paid manufacturing jobs meant that unemployment remained at around 1%
(OConnor & Goodwin, 2004).
In the 1960s, Leicester had a mixture of secondary modern schools, technical
schools and grammar schools catering for around 80,000 school children. From
the mid-1960s to the early 1970s it is reported that the percentage of pupils
attending secondary modern and grammar schools remained fairly constant at
73% and 27% respectively (Brooks & Singh, 1978). According to Ashton and
Field (1976), those young people unable to obtain a place at a grammar school
were unlikely to leave school with any qualifications and would leave as soon as
possible at age 15.
The data presented in Table I suggest that the majority of the boys were aged
between 16 and 18 at the time of the interview. Around 8% of the sample were
aged 19 or over, while 5% were aged 15 or under. The majority of the boys (77%)
had received less than one years further education and left school at the very first
opportunity. As suggested above, the data presented in Table I indicate that over
45% of the boys worked in skilled manual occupations and 45.4% were working in
craft and related occupations. Indeed, in line with Wights (1993) findings, getting
a trade was very important to these boys. Thirty-three per cent were working in
either partly skilled or unskilled occupations, 15.8% were working in skilled non-
manual occupations and just over 5% were working in intermediate occupations.
Table I indicates that 15.4% of the boys were working as plant and machine opera-
tives, 14.2% were working in clerical and secretarial occupations and a further
11.4% were working in sales occupations. There were also small clusters of boys
working in associate professional, professional and personal and protective service
occupations. As such, the data suggest that boys early employment and transitional
experiences in Leicester during the early 1960s were relatively homogeneous, with
boys most likely to leave school as soon as possible and enter skilled or semi-skilled
craft-based occupations.
456 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
Table I. Age Number of jobs, social class, standard occupational classication and education
Variable Number Percentage
Age
14 2 0.3
15 27 4.7
16 203 35.2
17 86 14.9
18 212 36.7
19 37 6.4
20 2 0.3
21 1 0.2
Missing 7 1.2
Number of jobs
1 363 62.9
2 128 22.2
3 53 9.2
4 16 2.8
5+ 17 2.9
Social class in first job
Professional occupations
Intermediate occupations 31 5.4
Skilled occupations (non-manual) 91 15.8
Skilled occupations (manual) 263 45.6
Partly skilled occupations 93 16.1
Unskilled occupations 97 16.8
Armed forces 2 0.3
Main standard occupation classification
Managers and administrators
Professional occupations 2 0.3
Associate professional occupations 29 5.0
Clerical and secretarial occupations 82 14.2
Craft and related occupations 262 45.4
Personal and protective service occupations 22 3.8
Sales occupations 66 11.4
Plant and machine operatives 89 15.4
Other occupations 25 4.3
Education
More than one years further education 130 22.5
Less than one years further education 445 77.2
Missing 2 0.3
N 577
Boys transitions to work 457
Reflections on school
The interview schedule included a series of questions which asked the young workers
to reflect upon their experience of education. The first of these questions asked: Do
you wish you had stayed on longer at school? The majority of boys (66%) indicated
that they did not regret the decision to leave school. When asked to expand on this,
the financial incentive of employment was of key importance to many. Certainly
notions of becoming breadwinners were highly significant; as the quotes below illus-
trate, these boys wanted to leave school to earn their own money:
Wanted to leave so could get out and earn own money.
Looking forward to it very much, I always wanted to go to work and to earn my own
money.
I wanted to leave school I grew fed upthe attraction of earning my own money also
helped.
However, not all the boys were so positive about entering employment and some
explained that they had been anxious or frightened of leaving school and going to
work:
I was anxious, confused, worried. I think were all like that on leaving school.
I suppose I was a little bit frightened of leaving school [Why?] It would be the first major
step I took.
I was frightened. It was a big change. At school you have nothing to bother about, but at
work you may get the sack.
For some of the boys, even among those who had been keen to leave school, there was
a sense of regret about leaving school. Like the boys in Williss (1977) research, and
the girls in OConnor and Goodwins (2004), there seemed to be a realisation of the
value of education only when it was too late to reconsider the decision to leave:
I wanted to get away and earn the money. I suppose everyone does. Once Id left and been
at work a couple of years, I started thinkingwe didnt really take advantage of it.
When I go into business on my own, Ill need to know more about English, how to speak
proper grammar, more about maths, it would be useful now.
I didnt want to leave, I would have liked to go to school still as part-time, I think it ought
to be compulsory to go to school for perhaps two days a week and to work for the rest of
the time for a while, its too big a step straight from school to work.
Some of these quotes demonstrate that, alongside the recognition of the value of
education, there was also a realisation that qualifications would have served as a
short-cut, to achieving the desired career. So, for example, the trainee draughtsman,
quoted above, left school without qualifications, but once he realised that they were
essential for the job he wanted, he went to evening classes to improve his qualifica-
tions and, in turn, improve his career prospects.
However, it is important to realise that within this group of school-leavers very few
would have had the chance of staying on at school, even if they had wanted to, as this
18-year-old office worker describes:
458 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
I couldnt stay any longer, you had to leave at 15. If Id had the chance, I should have
stayedthink Id have benefited in the long run.
Most of the schools attended by respondents did not offer the option of studying for
O-levels and many of the boys, as Ashton and Field (1976, p. 290) suggest, were
unlikely to obtain any certificates and were destined for manual work. Invariably it
was the working-class children to whom this applied.
Thinking about work
A now clichd view of boys work aspirations during the 1950s and early 1960s was
that all boys wanted to become railway engine drivers and that working on the
railways would be any boys dream. The data from the Adjustment of young workers
to work situations and adult roles research project allow us to move beyond such
stereotypical views of the past and examine the reality of this group of boys work
aspirations.
Table II contains data on the boys career aspirations and information on the
number of boys actually entering different types of work. There is little evidence to
indicate that the boys had unrealistic aspirations. Although Table II does reveal a
diverse range of career aspirations, with some of the boys aspiring to become pilots,
footballers, journalists, doctors, teachers and jockeys, the numbers hoping to achieve
unrealistic jobs were low. In general the boys were aspiring to obtain jobs as mechan-
ics, carpenters and electricians, occupations which matched the immediate demands
of the local labour market but which were also gender appropriate. However, for some,
such jobs were difficult to achieve and there were not many relevant opportunities:
I wanted to be a mechanic. But in the end it [stock-keeper] was the only job I could get.
I said I want to be a mechanic. I went round and looked but couldnt get one.
Actually, I first wanted to be a carpenter and joiner but at the time there was no vacancies
so the YEO says I ought to take a temporary job.
I was going as an apprentice electrician but didnt pass testthey offered this instead.
As suggested above, the local labour market was dominated by three key industries
underpinned by a large number of craft-based occupations and apprenticeships. In
this respect, many of the boys aspirations reflect the reality of local labour market
conditions, with large numbers aspiring to enter craft-based occupations such as engi-
neering, mechanical and electrical trades or joinery and carpentry (Brooks & Singh,
1978). The appeal of these industries seemed to reside with the opportunity to be
creative:
Mechanic. I liked pulling things to bits and sticking them back together again.
I have always been interested in cars, I used to like wood-carving and clay modelling, I like
doing things with my hands.
I always have liked making things.
I was interested in making things out of metal.
Boys transitions to work 459
Table II. Boys career aspirations and actual numbers entering at rst job
Job description Job aspirations* Actual first job destination
Engineering 62 92
Mechanic 46 31
Electrician 34 28
Joiner/carpenter 29 12
Draughtsman 24 12
Navy (Merchant and Royal) 20 1
Factory worker 18 69
Painter and decorator 18 16
Police 15 1
Farming 15 2
Office work (e.g. clerk) 14 62
Artist (commercial) 13 1
Printer 12 14
RAF 11 0
Accountant 7 6
Plumber 7 7
Railway worker 7 6
Radio and TV technician 7 4
Army 6 0
Footballer 6 0
Architect 6 0
Builder/labourer 5 8
Bricklayer 5 5
Shopworker 7 42
Journalist 5 0
Butcher 4 6
Doctor/dentist 4 0
GPO 4 3
Lorry driver/drivers mate/van boy 4 9
Fire officer 4 0
Chef 3 1
Hairdresser 3 1
Insurance sales 3 0
Teacher 3 0
Advertising 2 0
Gas fitter 2 4
Gardening 2 1
Jockey 2 0
Work with animals 2 0
Solicitor, air steward, fishing, miner, actor, chemist,
researcher, warehouse, projectionist, probation officer,
waiter, laboratory assistant, scientist, window cleaner
1 10
No opinion 155
*Some respondents mentioned more than one job and all preferences were counted, hence the total here is are greater
than the number of male respondents.
460 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
Interestingly, many of the boys aspired to these occupations because of their own
experiences of subjects at school such as metalwork, woodwork and electronics
(Carter, 1962; Maizels, 1970; Ryrie & Weir, 1978). Their apparent creative successes
in these subjects spurred them on to seek careers in which they could pursue these
skills:
Yes, I always fancied the engineering. Well, I think because I enjoyed the metalwork
classes at school.
We used to do woodwork quite a bit at school and in our spare time we used to do it.
used to get on all right at metalwork, and I thought if I could get on alright at school, I
could get on alright in engineering firm.
I done lot about electricity in Science at school and wanted to have a go.
These quotations provide some evidence that the transition from school to work
reinforced gendered, appropriate preferences. However, for the boys in this study
the desire to be creative appears to override notions that craft-based work was hard
and demanding physical labour. As such there is some evidence to suggest that they
were interested in the creative process of producing something useful, rather than
the act of simply going to work. Many of the boys were pushed towards subjects
such as woodwork and metalwork while at school and these experiences shaped the
boys work and occupational choices. Similarly, regardless of their aspirations prior
to entering the labour market, the girls were pushed towards traditionally feminine
occupations such as hosiery manufacture and this shaped their eventual occupational
choices.
While most boys successfully entered employment soon after leaving school, many
did not achieve their original occupational aspirations. As Table II illustrates, the most
significant job destination was the engineering industry. Some 96 boys ended up work-
ing in engineering, either as apprentices or as trainee fitters, storekeepers, lathe oper-
ators and general labourers, although only 62 had expressed a preference for working
in this environment. Although more boys ended up in this industry than those who
aspired to enter it, there were many who had ambitions to work in engineering:
I was good at metalwork at school, my dad was in it and my brothers.
Yes, I always fancied the engineering. Well, I think because it were put in to my head by
my brother and because I enjoyed the metalwork classes at school.
Interested in engineering and my father is an engineer.
From the quotations above, it is clear that engineering was seen as an occupation to
aspire to, given the boys experiences at school and their kinship links with males who
were engineers themselves. The importance of getting a trade cannot be ignored for
the boys in this sample. As Roberts (1984) argues, studies of school-leavers in the
postwar period all stress the significance of getting a trade and parents of boys, in
particular, frequently advised their sons of the security associated with learning a
trade (Ryrie & Weir, 1978). Many of these boys took this advice and sought jobs in
trades because of the good prospects such careers were seen to offer:
Boys transitions to work 461
Good job, prospects, stable and got trade if I do decide to leave.
I never had the brains to do anything else. I didnt want to be a navy or anything like that.
I wanted a trade in my hands.
I tried a few places and then I went to Freers and they do coppersmith so I tried there cos
I liked the idea of coppersmiths, its a good trade like.
This is in direct contrast to the girls, for whom getting a trade was seen as unneces-
sary. The girls were more likely to be encouraged to pursue well-paid work, such as
overlocking in hosiery factories. For girls, the pursuit of short-term, high financial
rewards was seen as desirable because this maximised the benefit of their potentially
curtailed period of active labour-market participation (OConnor & Goodwin, 2004).
Among the boys, the next three first-job destinations were, in order, factory work,
office work and shopwork. Few boys aspired to work in these occupations; for exam-
ple, only 18 boys wanted to work in a factory, whereas 69 respondents first jobs were
factory based. When asked if there were any jobs that they did not want to take, 125
boys identified factory work as undesirable:
I didnt fancy working in a big factory. I dont think Id be able to stand that. Its too big,
youre like a number. Just made my mind up, I werent going into a factory, thats all. Just
didnt fancy it, thats all. Seemed a bit of a hard life as you got older. [Fathers] influence
drove you on. Having a father been on the factory floor, it influences you against it, in a
way, I doctrined him against the benchwork. What Ive seen of the factory life, always
beneficial to be on the salaried side of things.
The factory we went round, shoe machinery. Dirty, damp, noisy machinerylittle kids
doing mans work getting low wagesmen pulling a lever and getting 20 a week, it was
like a workhouse.
Not into a factory. Because factory jobs to me were always dead-end jobs.
Similarly, although for 62 boys office work was their first employment, only 14 boys
had aspired to office work. Generally, such work was seen as boring and being too
similar to school life:
An office. Too much sitting down and paperwork.
An office job. I just think its boring and I think its far more satisfying to do something
with your own hands and then see the results of it.
I didnt want to work in an office. I thoughtId been cooped up in a school since I was
five, an office wasnt much different. I couldnt sit at a desk all day, I wouldnt be happy.
Shopwork was also unpopular and seen as a feminine occupation, as this respondent
suggested when explaining why he didnt want to work in a shop:
shop assistant, boring, but alright for girls.
Only seven boys aspired to work in a shop, although six times as many (42) ended up
entering shop-related work. Before entering the labour market, many boys felt that
shopwork was dead-end work, boring work and as far removed from a trade as one
could get. Again, having a trade as part of being a respectable working man (Wight,
1993) seemed very important, as the following quotes illustrate:
462 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
Shop. Theres no trade behind it.
Well, it isnt a trade being in a shop.
No trade in a shop, anybody could do it, just gotta be good at maths and talking to people.
You really have no trade, you cant change to a factory or anything. You can only move to
another shop.
These job outcomes: factory and office work and shopwork, are striking in the close
resemblance to girls first-job destinations, regardless of initial job aspirations. Among
girls, factory and office work and shopwork were seen as being the least desirable
occupations, yet it was mainly this type of work in which they were eventually
employed. Like the girls who were unable to achieve their ambitions of becoming
hairdressers (OConnor & Goodwin, 2004), many of the boys could not easily obtain
access to learning a trade of their choice.
For many of these Leicester boys the occupational reality was rather bleak in some
respects. As Roberts (1995) has argued, it is rare for occupational aspirations and the
reality of job opportunities to correlate and choices about work are limited.
Although some of these boys obtained apprenticeships (156), mainly in engineering,
many others took jobs that they had originally spurned. As Furlong (1992, 1993,
p. 60) suggests, such a pattern is not unusual among school-leavers in general and
more often than not, young people fail to enter the specific types of work that they
had hoped for whilst at school.
Finding work
As discussed above, the majority of the sample were keen to leave school and start
earning money. Generally, they took an organised approach to job-seeking and real-
ising their breadwinning ambitions. Almost three-quarters of respondents had
arranged employment before they left school. This suggests that the school-leavers
had few illusions about the world of workthey knew what awaited them and under-
stood the need to be organised in finding work. It is interesting to note that among
these boys there was also some fear of unemployment, and even when jobs had been
secured, there was still anxiety over job security (Vickerstaff, 2003; Goodwin &
OConnor 2005b). This is, perhaps, surprising given that this period has been seen as
a golden age of employment when jobs were plentiful and young people made a
smooth transition to work (Kiernan, 1992; Roberts, 1984, 1995). However, as Good-
win and OConnor (2005b) have stated elsewhere, some individuals in this study did
experience frequent breaks in employment, periods of unemployment and difficulties
in securing employment.
For the great majority who were able to arrange work in advance of leaving school,
kinship networks played an important role in helping these school-leavers find their
first jobs. Many of the boys early introductions to work were via male relatives,
particularly fathers, who informed them of suitable vacancies in their own work-
places. As Lloyd suggests:
Boys transitions to work 463
Traditionally young men have been introduced to the workplace by their fathers often
finding them jobs in the industries in which they themselves worked the young men
rarely sought/received direction from their mothers. (Lloyd, 1999, p. 28)
Ashton and Field (1976, p. 46) also stress the importance of informal and kinship
networks in seeking employment, explaining that the role played by word of mouth
from family, friends and relatives cannot be ignored. Certainly this was a pattern
which was important among this group and the boys fathers played a key role in help-
ing them find work and gain entry into workplaces, particularly when the boys entered
apprenticeships, craft and trade type jobs or factory work. This is in direct contrast to
the girls in the study, none of whom found their first job through their father
(OConnor & Goodwin, 2004):
My dad got the job for me.
My dad knows this man at work. His mate and his dad worked there and got me the job.
Dad works thereworks on machines, so got me a job.
Through my father. [Mother] He couldnt have got in otherwise, it was difficult to get a
job.
My dad took me down to the manager in 1960, to Mr Holmes, and it was arranged that I
should start two weeks after leaving school.
Other male relatives were also important and respondents often explained that they
had found their first job through their uncle or brother:
I was taken round the firm when I left school, and besides that my father works there, my
uncle works there and my step-grandad used to work there.
My uncles in the same trade, well, same firm, not same trade and he told me bits about
it, I knew people who was in there and they raked me into itnot talked me into it,
explained what it was, took a liking to it and went for an interview and had another inter-
view with another firm and chose between which I liked, and I took this job Ive got now.
My brother told me there was a vacancy and he arranged an interview for me.
Mothers and other female relatives were less helpful to the boys than male relatives,
with only a few saying that their mothers had helped them find work. Often mothers
played a more passive, advisory role than the fathers, suggesting places to apply or
using personal contacts to introduce their son to an employer:
Two weeks before leaving school, I was going with mother for an interview at shoe factory
when Imperial Van passed bymother said how about trying there, so I didcalled at
firm and got a job.
I told my mother I was interested. One of the women she works with, her husband said
there was a job going, so I went to see.
The pattern of a strong parental influence which emerges from these data fits with
Ashton and Fields (1976, p. 97) assertion that for boys who had had a poor experi-
ence of school, only attaining a low position educationally, the role of the parents in
assisting the transition into work was of paramount importance. They suggest that
464 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
working-class parents were likely to use their knowledge and connections in the local
labour market to gain his [sons] entry into an occupation. This was not the case with
their daughters as their future well-being is often seen as largely dependent on
making the right marriage.
Although family contacts were clearly very important to many respondents,
another main mechanism for finding work was through the Youth Employment
Office (YEO). As Maizels (1970, p. 122) comments, those school-leavers with
weaker parental influence were most likely to be users of the YEO. As the quotes
below suggest, the boys in this study were relatively positive about the help they
received from the YEO, in contrast to the girls, who were often disparaging about its
role (OConnor & Goodwin, 2004):
Asked me what I wanted to do. I told him and he arranged an interview.
YEO suggested Co-op after R had said he wanted shopwork without Saturday afternoon
work, YEO arranged interview.
He asked me what I wanted to do and I said not in a factory, and he gave me a list of jobs
a shop cropped up [What kind of shop?] Well, grocery cropped up so I go and have two
interviews.
This suggests, perhaps, that the YEOs were more helpful to boys and saw girls as
needing a job only to fill in until they married and gave up work (Ashton & Field,
1976; Roberts, 1995). However, the data also suggest that the YEOs were giving
gender-appropriate advice by steering girls towards Leicesters traditional feminine
occupational sector and steering boys towards craft-based trades, rather than towards
their initial occupational preferences:
YEO said cars should be a hobby and I was not well-built enough for police, suggested
GPO.
YesYEO more or less persuaded me to [work in a factory].
I wasnt actually certain what I wanted to be, and theres not many lads want to go into
building trade, and of course he thought, well, hes good at woodwork, so I might as well
see if I can get him to go into that trade, yes he definitely made up my mind.
Oh yes, definitely, it was him who made me do engineering.
As we have discussed elsewhere (Goodwin & OConnor, 2003, 2005a), past consid-
erations of the transition from school to work have tended to underestimate the indi-
vidual level of complexity that characterised youth transitions of the time. The fears,
anxieties and concerns of those making the transitions have become lost in the broader
structural analyses that were offered.
Adjusting to work
A number of the questions in the original interviews focused on adjustment to work
and the way in which respondents had adjusted to their role as worker, to relation-
ships with older workers and to dealing with difficulties at work. A number of themes
Boys transitions to work 465
emerge from these data, revealing that the main areas of difficulty the boys faced
related to their perceived lack of knowledge and skills required to perform their jobs,
poor relationships with supervisors and bosses and difficulties with other employees.
Other more mundane concerns emerged over working hours and holidays, both of
which were seen as being unfavourable compared to school.
Many of the boys had high levels of anxiety about their ability to do the jobs for
which they were employed. There is evidence that they were concerned about the lack
of training they had received:
I was nervous serving about the counterI was alright when there were one or two but a
crowd makes me really nervous.
Ive had a few difficulties about this job Im doingnot knowing how to do it properly.
It has sometimes been difficult to get to know things necessary to the job.
Other boys mentioned difficulties with certain relationships at work, usually with
their supervisors or with older, more experienced workers. There is evidence that
some of the young workers experienced varying degrees of workplace bullying:
the first mate I had, always knocking me about, giving me a punch, that sort of thing. After
a few weeks, I was moved to another job, the second mate was about as bad making fun
out of me all the time.
The two older men were jealous because I had an extra weeks holiday to go to Cyprus
where I have a brother, and they bore a bit of malice for a month or two.
Thinking about the future
Although the boys had just entered work, they were asked to think about what they
would be doing in ten years time. Interestingly, only 41 out of the 577 males
thought they would be married with children within ten years. This compares to
over half of the girls, who assumed that marriage and children would form part of
their immediate future (OConnor & Goodwin, 2004). This finding seems to contra-
dict the assertion made by some (see Jones, 1995) that, in the past, young people
would aspire to find work, leave home and get married as soon as they possibly
could:
Married with a family, I shall be a knitter by then, dont want to go to another job, not now.
I hope I have got my own business, and I hope I shall be married.
I hope to be married I hope to have a house of my own, a good steady job and a good wage.
I should think Ill be married, have kiddies, me own houseI want to buy me own house,
buy an old house and do it up.
The above quotations also reveal a clear linkage in the boys minds between work and
marriage, in that the boys referred to future job aspirations. Two of the quotes also
reveal evidence of the breadwinner ideology, with the boys reflecting on the need to
provide housing and incomes for their families.
466 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
Educational attainment did appear to affect boys future aspirations. Of those with
less than one years further education, 30% suggested that they would be still working
in the same job or in the same firm in ten years time. Eighteen per cent suggested
that they did not know what they would be doing in ten years:
Wouldnt really know, if Im still there reckon Ill be on the bendingif I dont get the
sack, which I dont think I will haveIll be on the bending, Ill be alright.
Ten years time? Should hope to be a plumber, then start up business of my own.
Still be in the sheet-metal trade, by that time, Ill be skilled chap from the unions point of
view.
I should think at the same factory.
Probably the same job as I am doing now.
This compares to only 17% of those with more that one years further education, who
suggested that they would be in the same job or firm. Only 11% suggested that they
did not know what they would be doing in ten years time:
When I qualify and do my three to four years practical experience, I will have a very good,
well-paid job.
A manager in a good hotel or an assistant manager in an excellent hotel.
Hope by that time I will have specialised in something, probably CID or traffic work
hope to get on the motorcycles for a short time and then CID.
There also appear to be slight age differences when comparing 16- and 18-year-old
respondents. Slightly fewer (26%) of the 16-year-olds reported that they would be in
the same job in ten years time as compared to the 18-year-old respondents (30%).
However, 14% of those aged 18 suggested that they did not know what they would
be doing in ten years time compared to 20% of those aged 16. Of those in unskilled
occupations, 25% indicated that they did not know what they would be doing in ten
years time as compared to only 1% of those in intermediate occupations.
What happened to the boys?
As suggested above, at the time the boys left school the Leicester labour market was
dominated by engineering, textiles and clothing and footwear manufacture. However,
between the time of the original interviews in 19624 and the re-interviews in 2002
4, the local labour market had been dramatically transformed and these dominant
industries had almost disappeared. The decline of local industries was a common
theme during the re-interviews:
It seems to be all manufacturing thats, its not just the shoe industry, its knitwear, its
anything thats manufacturing, is being done abroad, and we cant compete. Had the
company [name], I was made redundant from there, I mean their main customer was a
company called [name] but their MD moved all of their production to China. And he said
that the difference is, he said here we pay the average of 200/300 a week, to employees.
In China, theyre paid, sort of, 50 dollars a month. Against our competitors we cant
Boys transitions to work 467
compete, you know, people are going over there, sad, but weve gotta do it if we want to
stay viable. And its, I think, well suffer because of it in years to come.
Well, all through the years in the textiles, we had, we had a lot of redundancies coming
down from 7000 people, right down to hundreds and hundreds of people, then we merged
with [name], which turned out to be a takeover in the end, a year later, and there were still
redundancies and people were going. What they did was, two years beforehand they set up
a factory in Sri Lanka, and all the Sri Lankans came over and we trained them up, and the
blokes said, oh were gonna ship all the work out, and the management assured us they
werent, it was for a different market.
The changing fortunes of the Leicester labour market had serious consequences for
the individuals who had entered work in the 1960s. Contrary to many consider-
ations of youth transition during the 1960s, when the labour market was character-
ised by full employment and easy transitions, the Leicester labour market had
already begun to fluctuate. As such, school to work transitions and early work expe-
riences were far more complicated than previously thought, with over half of the
sample experiencing individualised, complex, fragmented and lengthy transitions
during their first years of work (Goodwin & OConnor, 2005a). For example, many
of the young workers found it hard to gain apprenticeships, many moved jobs due to
poor training and others experienced insecurity brought on by unemployment or the
fear of unemployment.
The respondents did not follow single career paths as expected, but moved in and
out of positions, occupations and employment based on the fluctuations of the local
labour market. There were many examples of individuals who had begun what
Ashton and Field (1976) would have deemed to be middle-class careers who, shortly
after being originally interviewed, moved into short-term careers in hosiery and
textiles, often lured by high wages. However, the changing nature of the labour
market undermined the boys view that getting a trade via an apprenticeship meant
security and a job for life as, at re-interview, the majority of individuals in the study
were no longer working in the industries for which they been had trained.
The decline of traditional industry in Leicester forced many of this group, who are
now approaching retirement, to seek alternative employment. As such, highly skilled
workers originally trained to work in hosiery and boot and shoe factories have found
work in the newer service industries such as sandwich and snack preparation facto-
ries. However, regardless of the fact that many of their skills are now obsolete, these
respondents retained a very strong sense of occupational identity often formed in their
very first jobs. For example, despite the fact the following respondent was now work-
ing on a sandwich production line he referred back to his early career apprenticeship
when asked about his occupational skills. He retained his identity as an engineer who
happened to be working in a sandwich and snack preparation factory due to his
current circumstances:
trouble is a lot of my skills have been superseded. I mentioned being able to erm work
a plug ball machine you dont see those now. I could work a capstan lathe, erm, you
dont see those so much now, theyve all been taken over by CNC. Now it doesnt just stop
at working a capstan lathe, its a case of being able to screw cut, to be able to cut threads
468 J. Goodwin and H. OConnor
and to be able to use what you call a roller box and now these were skills that I know and
have retained, but I dont use.
A number of the men mourned the decline of the hosiery and footwear industries, the
decline in traditional apprenticeships and the under-utilisation of their skills. Some
reflected upon their desire to pass on their skills to a new generation but recognised
that the labour market had changed so extensively that these skills would not be
required in the future.
Ive done quite a lot, but we never got round to the exam side of it, so I didnt get any qual-
ifications. A lot of experience, most of it wasted now, unfortunately.
Older men have got skills in turning, grinding whatever. The skills that are dying,
theyre a dying trade basically, dying skills and if, if you lose them you dont get them back.
Cos theres no young people coming in wanting to do that. Unless you can press a button
down, young kids dont want to actually, er, get their hands dirty.
When entering work for the first time, few of the young men could have predicted what
would happen to the local labour market. Taking parental advice to undertake craft-
based apprenticeships did help the boys in the short-term. However, as they got older
fluctuations in the labour market left many with skills they could not use, in jobs they
did not want and reflecting on the lost career opportunities that a better education
could have provided.
Conclusion
We began this paper by suggesting that boys school to work transitions need to be
considered as a gendered experience. Many early studies of transitions were criticised
for not considering the transition experiences of girls (Griffin, 1985; OConnor &
Goodwin, 2004). However, these early studies (Carter, 1962; Douglas, 1964; Willis,
1977) also neglected to examine transition as a gendered experience in terms of boys
or girls, concerning themselves instead with the debates around education and class.
The lack of a focus on girls school to work experiences has, to some extent, been
redressed (Sharpe, 1976, 1994; Griffin, 1985; Wallace, 1986), but, the gendered
experience of boys has continued to be neglected. This paper has, then, attempted to
redress this balance, and argued that transitional experiences need to be examined
with a gender perspective focusing on boys as well as girls.
The data presented in this paper provide some insight into the school to work tran-
sitions of 577 boys entering work for the first time. Based on the our analysis of this
largely unknown data set, we can draw a number of conclusions relating the gendered
nature of boys school to work transitions 40 years ago. First, the majority of the boys
in this study wanted to leave school as soon as they possibly could to earn money and
provide for themselves. They saw school as a waste of time and believed that their
role was to work hard in jobs that were useful and productive. This provides some
evidence of the employment ethic that surrounds hegemonic masculinity. However,
not all of the boys were as keen to leave and perceived the labour market to be fright-
ening. Additionally, it was not until many of the boys had left school that they realised
Boys transitions to work 469
the true value of educational qualifications. For many of the boys this realisation came
too late.
Second, the local labour market was relatively buoyant in the early 1960s and the
boys in this study did give careful consideration to their future careers. The boys had
a wide range of occupational aspirations and, for many, these aspirations were
realistic given the conditions of the local labour market. However, the individual
experiences reveal that, although realistic, many of the boys were not able to realise
their ambitions. The data also reveal that the boys job choices, like girls, were highly
gendered and, on the advice of school, family and the Youth Employment Officer,
they entered male-dominated careers that were trade-based. The data also suggest
that fathers and other significant males played a crucial role in the final job destina-
tions of the boys.
Third, once in employment, the boys had to make wider adjustments to working
with others and to new routines. Again, the data reveal that this was far from straight-
forward for many of the boys, with some experiencing workplace bullying.
Fourth, all the boys in the study highlighted the significance of work for their
own futures and only a few identified home, marriage and family as being some-
thing they were aspiring to in the future. Those who did feel that they would be
married in ten years time linked this to future job prospects and their ability to
provide.
Finally, the data from the re-interviews indicate that the dramatic decline of local
industries from the 1970s onward meant that few respondents, even those who had
learnt a trade, had retained their original occupations. Skills learnt during appren-
ticeships were no longer relevant and the group found themselves deskilled, working
in food preparation factories.
The availability of Norbert Eliass largely unknown data on school to work transi-
tions has afforded us the opportunity to examine boys transitions to work as a
gendered process and provides insight into the early work experiences of boys in the
1960s. Further to this, the nature of this data set has provided the opportunity to
carry out longitudinal research with the same group of respondents now approaching
retirement. Tracing and re-interviewing a group of respondents from the original
sample will enable us to match aspirations and outcomes through individual complete
work histories from the early 1960s up to the present day.
Acknowledgement
The data for this paper emerges from an ESRC project From young workers to older
workers: reflections on work in the life course (no. R000223653).
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