This project is a case study of the hairdressing industry in British Columbia in the 1920s.
It argues that gender divisions persisted as consumerism became increasingly important to
British Columbians, and that despite British Columbia's sometimes challenging engagement
with international consumerism, the province's economy remained remarkably synchronized
with international trends. It tells the story of the rapid expansion and feminization of hair
services markets and businesses; examines the public and legislative debates about the
importance of consumer services such as hairdressing and its customers; and reveals the
persistence of gendered divisions in the early transition to a consumer services society. Using
British Columbian newspaper reports, American and Canadian women's and union periodicals,
city directories, national censuses, and government reports, the project looks first at the
increasing pressures in the 1920s from business owners, advertisers, and magazine editors to
adopt new, fashionable hairstyles and the sources of ambivalence among women about the new
styles. It then turns to hairdressing as a business and source of employment, and after briefly
reviewing the history of hairdressing in North America looks at the rapid expansion of
hairdressing businesses in British Columbia during the 1920s; the demographic characteristics of
hairdressing workers and entrepreneurs; and the feminization of the hair services industry. It also
explores the connection between feminist ideals and women's entrepreneurship in the hair
services field. Finally, the hairdressers' attempt to gain regulation from the provincial
government is examined at the end of the decade, with a particular focus on how consumerism
and hairdressing, its workers and customers, are characterized. The legislative and public debates
about hairdressing regulation reveal anxiety about consumerism and persistent gender divisions
as British Columbia began to shift toward a consumer-oriented society. It concludes that British
Columbia, despite its primary resource economic base, remained remarkably in step with
international trends, from feminization of services to regulation of those services, of which
hairdressing was just a beginning. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/15780 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Moore, Magdalena Dorothy Kean |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 8389198 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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