A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECTION 4
TEACHING OF COOKING
Throughout the report we have shown that the housewife's attitude to Food Facts was influenced by whether or not she had been taught cooking and whether she liked cooking. It seems likely that these two factors are of considerable importance in forming cooking habits. As information on these two factors might be of future use available data are summarised below.
25% of the housewives had no tuition in cooking. Of course those who had tuition almost 2/3 were taught at home. The proportion who were taught at evening or afternoon classes is quite considerable.
Table 35
Housewife taught cooking.
| % | % | |
| No tuition | 25 | |
| Taught * | 75 | |
| At home | 46 | |
| Elementary School | 30 | |
| Secondary School | 11 | |
| Domestic Science School | 4 | |
| Evening and afternoon classes | 14 | |
| No answer | ||
| SAMPLE: | 1934 | |
An age analysis shows that twice as many housewives over 50 had never been taught cooking, as compared with housewives under 34. This large difference between age group is entirely due to school teaching.
Table 36
Age of Housewife *
More housewives in the higher increase groups than in the lower income groups had been taught cooking.
Table 37
| Up to £3 | £3 - £4 | £4 - £5 10 | £5 10 and over | Not Classified | |
| % | % | % | % | ||
| Had been taught cooking | 64 | 69 | 79 | 80 | |
| Had not been taught cooking | 36 | 30 | 21 | 20 | |
| SAMPLE: | 343 | 381 | 728 | 468 | 14 |
Cooking is also taught less in rural districts.
Table 38
Town Size
| Rural Districts | Town Up to 200,000 | Town 200,000 and over | |
| % | % | % | |
| Had been taught cooking | 68 | 75 | 79 |
| Had not been taught cooking | 32 | 25 | 21 |
| SAMPLE: | 372 | 1,206 | 356 |
LIKING FOR COOKING
The housewife was asked for a purely subjective statement on whether or not she liked cooking. The answers were classified in the following three categories:
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1) Those who liked cooking (no account of the degree of the liking was taken.)
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2) Those who said they would like cooking under certain circumstances, e.g. if they had more time or more Food with which to cook.
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3) Those who said they did not like it.
Just over a half of the housewives liked cooking, and 11% really disliked it.
Table 39
Attitude to cooking
| % | |
| Liked it | 58 |
| Would like it if had more to cook with, or had more time | 31 |
| Did not like it | 11 |
| Others | 1 |
| SAMPLE: | 1934 |
An analysis by economic group and by whether or not the housewife went out to work shows that the proportion of housewives who disliked cooking is more than twice as large in the lowest income groups as in the highest income group. A dislike for cooking is also twice as high with housewives who go out to work as it is with those who stay at home.
Table 40
Wage rate of main wage earner
Table 41
Housewife going out to work
An analysis by whether or not the housewives were taught cooking shows that more housewives dislike cooking among those who have not been taught cooking.
Table 42
| Had been taught | Had not been taught | Unclassified | |
| % | % | ||
| Liked cooking | 59 | 54 | |
| Would like it if had more to cook with, or had more time | 31 | 29 | |
| Did not like it cooking | 10 | 17 | |
| SAMPLE | 1440 | 490 | 4 |
The proportion of housewives in large town who liked cooking was less than the proportion of housewives in rural districts who like cooking.
Table 43
Town Size
Three fourths of the housewives in the sample had been taught cooking; more younger than older housewives had had tuition, because more cookery teaching has been given in school in recent years. Also more teaching is given in towns and to the higher income groups.
Cooking was liked by slightly over half of the housewives. It was better liked in the higher income groups and in rural districts. More housewives like cooking in the group which did not go out to work and who had been taught cooking than in the groups which did go out to work and who had not been taught cooking. Whether housewives who like cooking seek teaching and do not go out to work, or whether the lack of teaching and the necessity to go out to work is inclined to make the housewife like cooking less is difficult to decide.