‘A Word to the Wives’: Spousal Letters and the Politics of Persuasion, 1959-74 – Harvey Bone and Tabatha Burden

During a seven-week internship at the University of Oxford, undergraduates Harvey Bone and Tabatha Burden worked on a project researching and assessing data from the 1959 and February 1974 elections, feeding into ongoing work being done by Dr. Lyndsey Jenkins around the contribution of spouses to political literature. Tabatha focused on the 1959 General Election, whilst Harvey looked at the February 1974 General Election. They came together to write this blog.

Introduction

‘Cliché-uttering, hand-shaking, all-smiling, all-purpose wind-up political dolls’

– Ann Leslie, The Daily Mail on politicians’ wives in 1974 [1]

When an election was in full swing in twentieth-century Britain, the public may have expected to receive handouts of election pamphlets from local party activists. These pieces of paper would typically include a photo of the candidate at the front, followed by their party’s stance on policy issues, then addressing more local concerns on the overleaf. In a world before the internet, these pamphlets were a great way to learn about both the public and personal life of a candidate – second only to hearing them speak. The back page is where a spouse’s endorsement (typically a wife) was commonly found, alongside more casual snapshots of the candidate’s life. It is this last page that has particularly captured our attention.

These “spousal letters”, spoke directly to voters, vouching for character, dedication, and integrity. Sometimes they reassured voters that politics had not made their husband neglectful at home; sometimes they promised voters that they were getting “two for the price of one”. Despite constant reassurances from wives that they were simply “a housewife and mother” who didn’t know a lot about politics, wives frequently engaged in discussions of polarising contemporary issues.

Focusing on the 1959 and February 1974 General Elections, specifically on English constituencies, we show that these letters were far from being quaint footnotes at the back of election pamphlets: they tell us a great deal about how gender continued to shape British politics, long after the enfranchisement of women.

1959 Election

The background to the 1959 election included increasing economic prosperity, following the end of rationing in 1954. There were an increasing variety of options on the high street, often targeted towards the housewife, the manager of the household economy. Conservatives were in power under Harold Macmillan, and the party was still recovering from the Suez crisis of 1956.

Of the 1,208 pamphlets studied, 399 (33%) included letters from spouses. Around 38% of these letters were from Conservative candidates, followed by 36% Liberal, and 26% Labour. [2] These disparities could be linked to the fact that both Conservative and Liberal parties sought to curate an image of a more ‘traditional’ family man, with his family at the centre of his actions. In comparison, Labour candidates focused more heavily on their trade union links and socialism, quite separate from the privacy of family life.

The content of letters across parties often overlapped. Many were set on establishing a relationship with the female constituents, with their letters often headed “A Word to the Female Reader”, or “Dear Housewife”. They may apologise for having been ill or preoccupied by family duties if they did not accompany their husband on tours of the constituency. If their husband was a sitting MP, many letters began “I am writing to you again”, entrenching a relationship.

The notable differences came in the promotion of various policy points. For instance, wives unsurprisingly lauded their husband’s party as the only way to achieve peace. Wives of Conservative candidates presented Macmillan as a superior statesman who could work on the world stage to achieve peace, whilst Labour and Liberal wives backed up their husband’s party policy of limiting the tests of H-bombs and reducing Britain’s nuclear weaponry all together, for the good of their children.

“As a mother with four young children, I want them to grow up in an atmosphere free from the threat of war” [3]

There were 60 female candidates standing in this election. They appeared reluctant to give much biographical information on themselves. Only 45% mentioning anything about their family, compared to 71% of men discussing their family life. This speaks to the sharply divided gender expectations in this period. Male candidates presented themselves as “family men”, whilst women had to prove themselves to have space in their busy housewife duties to manage a constituency’s needs.

There was only one male endorsement of his wife found in this study on 1959. Barbara Garden’s husband spoke more generally to the acceptability of women in politics, rather than his wife’s qualities, in stark contrast to wives’ endorsements:

“My wife’s membership of the Leeds City Council has made it clear to me over the years that there is a definite place for women in politics.” [4]

1974 Election:

By February 1974, Britain was facing a very different political and social climate. The February election was called during a period of economic crisis, shaped by the miners’ strike, the three-day week, and ongoing debates about Britain’s role in the European Economic Community. At the same time, wider social change, including the women’s liberation movement, was beginning to challenge traditional roles and expectations.

One visible change in election campaigning was the decline of spousal letters. Out of 1,489 candidates, only 178 used letters from wives, amounting to 12% of all candidates. This was less than half the proportion who had used them in 1959. Conservative candidates made the most frequent use of the device, producing 100 letters from their wives. By contrast, only 8 out of 389 Liberal candidates included wives’ endorsements, suggesting that overall, the practice was in retreat. Ann Leslie’s comment, at the start of this blog, illuminates the growing sense of scepticism and discomfort surrounding the use of spouses as campaign props – perhaps explaining this decline.

The tone of these letters was also shifting. Some continued to portray the candidates as a “family man”, whereas others tended to stress more general personal experiences, showing a sense of discomfort with following tradition.

Most letters concentrated on rising food prices, which affected families across the political spectrum. Wives often linked these economic concerns to broader themes such as children’s futures, education, or housing. However, the framing of these issues varied by party. For example, Jean Barber – wife of Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber – presented Britain as the victim of international greed. Labour candidates’ wives, on the other hand, unsurprisingly tended to blame Edward Heath’s government, sometimes re-using his 1970 promise to cut prices “at a stroke” as a criticism of his failure to do so.

Official portrait of Baroness Gardner of Parkes, 2019, Wikimedia Commons

Women candidates, who now numbered 73 across all parties (around 5% of the total), rarely drew attention to their family status, instead emphasising independence, competence, and professionalism – similar to 1959. This difference highlights the gendered nature of this device: it could strengthen a male candidate’s image as a family man but offered little support to women seeking recognition as politicians in their own right. Trixie Gardner’s campaign material demonstrates these tensions particularly well. Her husband’s letter adopted a tone that blurred whether he was endorsing her candidacy or claiming it as his own project – ”I have always thought – long before Women’s Lib – that there should be women in politics”.[5] In doing so, it risked undermining Gardner’s political ambitions by framing them as an extension of his authority, rather than as her independent pursuit – something that was rarely, if not never, seen with a woman’s endorsement of her husband.

Comparison:

What changes and continuities came about in the 15 years between these two elections? There are many lines of comparison, such as economic and cultural tensions, the increased role of women in politics, and Britain’s position on the world stage. However, for the purpose of demonstrating the most dramatic change in such a short period, we will spotlight the Liberal Party by focusing on the regional distribution of such letters.

As illustrated by these maps, which show the distribution of letters in 1959 and 1974, it is clear that the spousal letter had started to fall out of favour in British politics – dropping from 68 letters in 1959 to just 8 in 1974.

Liberal Map 1959, [Figure 1]: created with mapchart.net

Liberal Map Feb 1974, [Figure 2]: created with mapchart.net

Conclusion

Spousal letters were more than political curiosities; they were a tool used by parties and male candidates to frame their political identity and present a particular image of family life. While it is difficult to measure their direct impact on voters, their use highlights how political parties sought to connect personal lives with public roles. Spousal letters thus offer insight into how politics was packaged in mid-twentieth-century Britain. The contrast between their prominent use in 1959, when letters were often framed around stability and prosperity, and their more hesitant role in 1974, when economic and political pressures dominated campaigning, shows that they should not be dismissed as trivial. They form part of a wider story about how parties presented candidates, and about the ongoing negotiation of gender, family, and political authority.

Women's History Network

‘A Word to the Wives’: Spousal Letters and the Politics of Persuasion, 1959-74 – Harvey Bone and Tabatha Burden

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