Happy Families and the Rise of Social Science Research in the British Popular Press in the 1930s
Abstract
This chapter explores the way three newspapers in interwar Britain embraced social scientific thinking in their reporting, even conducting their own surveys by the end of the 1930s. Through research into the Daily Express, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, it argues that the press took a central role in normalising social science as a practice and as a tool for furthering a normative version of family, marriage and gender roles.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Media
Journalism
and Communication History
Historical Studies on Reproduction
Gender
Health
and Societal Changes
Journalism and Media Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Berghahn Books
- Pages
- 173–186
- Publication date
- 5 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter