The Incorporated Wife (Routledge Library Editions: Women and Work)

Originally published in 1984, this book touches the private lives and professional responsibilities of men and women, as it illustrates the comic as well as serious effects of the ‘incorporation’ of wives into some important State and commercial institutions. Beyond their domestic functions, wives have, in particular ways, been valuable props to many a husband’s career and many an employer’s and the nation’s interests. For example, the Army, civil administrations at home and overseas, and the police have, without questioning, depended on the services of wives – given silently, willingly or unwillingly. Yet the nature of the relationship of these ‘incorporated’ wives to the objectives of such institutions has, until recently, been largely unregistered in practice, unrecorded in social and historical accounts and unstudied by analysts.

This book provides a wealth of ethnographic material. Personal anecdotes and scholarly interpretations throw light on the conceptual systems underlying the workings and cultures of institutions, as well as the construction of identities. Many will find their experiences echoed here.

The issues raised are important not only for individual men and women, for whom such ‘incorporation’ may provide advantages as well as constraints, but because of the bearing they have on our understanding of marriage, especially since we cannot be sure this will continue in its present mode or as the dominant form of conjugal union. As more married women assume greater responsibilities at work, will their husbands give the same support to their wives and those who employ them as they themselves received? Further, it seems likely that wives may become less willing than in the past to render their services unacknowledged – indeed this trend is already apparent. We may ask, then, ‘who will fill the gaps?’, and ‘how will institutions change?’. The historical and contemporary studies here provide some base data and some theoretical approaches necessary for any who may wish to consider what will become increasingly acute practical questions.

Hilary Callan and Shirley Ardener