What does this mean exactly? What are the implications? The turn from ‘public’ to ‘private’ suggests that lawmakers, at the time, aren’t getting any more progressive, but that as Kate Gleeson suggests, in “The timeless aberration: Wolfenden and the making of modern prostitution” (2007), that it was a deliberate move to further render prostitution and female sexual explicitness invisible. She writes: 

            “…the investigation was never aimed at ascertaining the 'truth' of prostitution, or of public opinion, but at providing credibility and legitimacy for a pre-determined political strategy to hide this truth by concealing the sexual exploitation of women, away from the streets and the public view. The entire Wolfenden phenomenon, the Report and its aftermath, was an exercise in politicking and institutional myth making.” (70)

This move to ‘clean the streets’ of London, of Edinburgh and the like, was another tactic initiated to further professionalize the United Kingdom. When we consider what it might mean for a person like Gemma Hardy to be considered a ‘working girl’ post-war, when ‘working girl’ was an 18th c. term used to describe prostitutes, it seems that the conditions that necessitate this explicit movement from one class identity to another is founded, on a structural level, of how Hardy is positioned in Claypoole, how other girls could have also been in her position as well.

            In David Lynch’s ‘Scottish Schoolgirls’ (1999), a personal detail of his Scottish upbringing showcases his understanding of his mother’s institutionalization throughout the UK:

            “I think of her when I hear educationalists trying to account for the failure of working-class children at school…” (145)

He continues further:

             “The Domestic Course that she was eventually to come first in comprised the usual core subjects of English, Maths, Science, Geography, History. But for the girls there was great emphasis on sewing, laundry and cooking. In the final year, they were sent to 'a big house' where they worked 'one week on bedrooms, one week on dining and sitting rooms, one week on kitchens and preparing a meal, and setting a table'. They were also taught how to bath and care for a baby.” (153)

 There is, historically, clear contempt for working-class people. Working class people, even in the details of the Wolfenden Report, are constantly pushed in many directions. That above State law there is a moral, Christian law to abide to which controls the public and private space just as much as the State does. On a consistent basis, working class people in the UK have to navigate sin, social class, and servitude. When a younger Hardy tells the teacher that her parents are in fact educated she is mocked, reprimanded for showing excessive “pride.” Mr. Waugh continues and says, “Ignorance is not a sin and can be forgiven” though the implication that a learned person is more moral, “…but pride is one of the worst,” (Livesey 69) as if the only way a learned person can achieve a moral standard is to be obedient as well.

            It is interesting to see, however, that Livesey positions Hardy as someone who, just like Jane Eyre, will go through the brunt of institutionalized social domestication in order to distance herself from that specific class struggle. Hardy, on her way out of Claypoole, says “I sat eight O-level exams…I threw myself into preparation, knowing that, for once, I would not be judged as a working girl” (129). Hardy’s hope is to further educate herself as a means of upwards mobility.

Work Cited:

“The Flight of Gemma Hardy: a Novel.” The Flight of Gemma Hardy: a Novel, by Margot Livesey, HarperLuxe, 2012, pp. 69, 129.

Gleeson, Kate. “The Timeless Aberration: Wolfenden and the Making of Modern Prostitution.” Lilith (08138990), no. 16, Nov. 2007, p. 69. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&AN=33145009&site=eds-live.

https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/the-secret-guide-to-18th-century-e...

Lynch, John. "Scottish Schoolgirls." Changing English, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1999. pp. 145, 155.