Work and Leisure

History of work 29Figure 1.1 Estimates of length of working year: male manual workers in Britain, 1550–1950Source: based on Young and Willmott 1973: 132Note: *author’s interpolationsworking day for all, the move to the five-and-a-half-day and then the five-dayworking week and the advent of paid annual holiday entitlements. As aresult, the typical working year for full-time employed workers fell to lessthan 2000 hours in the post-Second World War era.These historical trends, indicating that working hours of most workers inpre-industrial England were considerably shorter than those of industrialworkers at the height of the industrial revolution, are widely acknowledged.The case for a pre-industrial leisured society, made by Schor (1991) andothers is, however, arguably somewhat exaggerated, since it seems to ignore anumber of issues, including women’s work; the disciplines of animal husbandry;the demands of feudal society and the Church; and the differencebetween agricultural, industrial and other sectors. These are now discussedin turn.Women workingSchor (1991: 44) herself notes that little is known about women’s workingpatterns, but suggests that their work commitments were probably morecontinuous than those of men. In addition to their contribution to the agriculturallabour of the peasant household, women had childcare and other