"Looking after the Babes" - Class, Gender, and the Nature of Scientific Improvement - a case study of the Aylesbury Duck Industry circa 1820-1920.

这项研究的关键要素将是调查科学进步和进步的概念，以及性别和阶级如何看待和定义这一概念。我们将以艾尔斯伯里鸭业为例，深入探讨这些想法。这个行业有一个短暂的帝国，在一百年内起伏不定。女性在该行业发挥了关键作用，但她们的贡献仍然隐藏着。这项研究将探索这种隐藏的角色，以及它对女性本身和该行业的发展过程产生了什么影响。艾尔斯伯里鸭业是艾尔斯伯里河谷独有的，以前没有被调查过。它起源于白金汉郡的农村城镇，可以被描述为原始工业革命时期的农业版的国内“耕种”制度。这是一个由农业劳动者、农民和农民组成的行业，具有明显的社会和经济分工；小鸭子由劳动者饲养，而分开的鸭子饲养者提供鸡蛋。在农业萧条时期，该行业表现出成功替代农业的典型特征。在生产高峰期，妇女在经济和创业方面的重要贡献基本上被掩盖了，相反，重点是她们的养育和家庭本能，以及如何利用这些本能来改善农村人口和城市中产阶级妇女的一般道德。这项研究将为利用性别来定义和指导该行业的发展以及随后的历史和经济分析提供一个独特的视角。艾尔斯伯里鸭业将框架探索女性工作和技术进步之间的明显矛盾关系。在该行业内，缺乏对家禽饲养的科学方法以及冷藏和孵化器等技术变革的投资和教育。这项研究将调查该行业缺乏科学进步是否出于保持妇女家庭地位的愿望而永久存在并受到鼓励。我将研究农业中的科学进步和进步的概念，以确定它是如何用性别术语定义的。随着制作变得更加发达，这是不是用男性的话来说就是适合男性的熟练工作？结果是，女性被推到更多的家务岗位上，直到该行业开始显示出衰落的迹象，这可能会与丹麦乳制品行业的进步和身份认同相提并论。我提出的研究与当今社会有很大的相关性，因为科学领域仍然缺乏女性，媒体如何描绘她们。

The key element of this research will be to investigate the notion of scientific improvement and progression, and how this is perceived and defined by gender and class. The Aylesbury Duck Industry will be used as a case study to explore these ideas in depth.This industry had a brief empire; rising and falling within a hundred years. Women played a key role within the industry, but their contribution remains hidden. This research will explore that hidden role and what impact it had on the women themselves and the course of the industry.The Aylesbury Duck Industry was exclusive to the Vale of Aylesbury and has not previously been investigated. Originating in the rural towns of Buckinghamshire it could be described as the agricultural equivalent of the domestic "putting-out" system of the proto-industrial revolution. It was an industry of agricultural labourers, cottagers and farmers with distinct social and economic divisions of labour; the ducklings were raised by the labourers while separate duck breeders provided the eggs.During the agricultural depression the industry displayed the classic characteristics of a successful alternative agriculture. The important economic and entrepreneurial contribution of women was largely hidden during the peak production years, instead the focus was on their nurturing and family instincts and how these could be utilised in improving the general morals of the rural population and middle-class urban women. This research will provide a unique perspective into the development of the use of gender to define and direct both the course of the industry and its subsequent historical and economic analysis.The Aylesbury Duck Industry will frame the exploration of the apparent contradictory relationship between women's work and technological progress. Within the industry there was a lack of investment and education in scientific methods of poultry-rearing and technological changes such as refrigeration and incubators. This research will investigate if this lack of scientific progression by the industry was perpetuated and encouraged from the desire to maintain women's domestic status. I will examine the concept of scientific progress and advancement within agriculture to establish how it was defined in gender terms. As the production became more developed was this expressed in masculine terms as skilled work suitable for men? A resultant push of women into more domestic roles until the industry started to show signs of decline may find a parallel with the progress and identity of the Danish Dairy Industry.My proposed research has much relevance to society today with the continued lack of women in science and how they are portrayed in the media.