Bureaucratic governance, family economies and the 1930s NSW teachers’ marriage bar, Australia.

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an analysis of Statutory Declaration forms completed by teachers seeking exemption from dismissal under the NSW Married Women (Lecturers and Teachers) Act (1932-1947). Most sought exemption on hardship grounds, recording details of their husbands’ inability or unwillingness to provide them with ‘adequate’ support. The collection offers insight into the gendered family finances of a particular social group during the 1930s Depression, revealing some complex interdependencies—such as the need to support extended kin—and offering insights into the role of the state in the making of the family as a social and economic unit. The bureaucratic apparatus of regulation and standardised paperwork operated materially and discursively to distinguish the exceptional (salaried married women) from the more desirable or legitimate order of gendered responsibilities (financially dependent wives). Finally, the forms are strikingly silent about the professional teaching work of the women.