Abstract
This pamphlet attempts to survey women’s work in Great Britain in the century 1840–1940. This first chapter raises some of the general questions, problems and characteristics of women’s work in the period; the second examines in more detail women’s paid full-time work; the third chapter looks at some of the social and economic aspects of married women’s work both paid and unpaid; and the last chapter considers changes in women’s working conditions and status and the roles of government, employers and unions.
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Bibliography
Sally Alexander, ‘Women’s Work in Nineteenth-Century London — A Study of the Years 1820–1850’ in [65]. A useful essay for the beginning of the period about the importance of women’s work which was not recorded by the census.
Sally Alexander, Anna Davin and Eve Hostettler, ‘Labouring Women, a reply to Eric Hobsbawm’ in History Workshop Journal, 8 (1979). Attacks the stereotype of working-class women being simply wives and mothers and not workers. Emphasises differences over time and place.
Alice Amsden, The Economics of Woman and Work (1980). An introduction to the theories of women’s work.
W. A. Armstrong, ‘The use of information about occupations’ in E. A. Wrigley (ed.), Nineteenth Century Society (1972). Not specifically about women workers but a detailed guide for those wishing to use the census data.
J. A. Banks, Prosperity and Parenthood (1976). Not directly about working-class women’s work but argues that the employment of servants was part of the ‘paraphernalia of gentility’ required to establish middle-class status.
Michelle Barratt and Mary Mcintosh, ‘The Family Wage: Some Problems for Socialists and Feminists’, Capital and Class, No. 11 (1980). Contains a counter argument to [46].
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Clementina Black, Married Women’s Work Being the Report of an Enquiry undertaken by the Women’s Industrial Council (1915). A useful descriptive work; see especially her chapter on rural work and charwomen.
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Barbara Taylor, Eve and the New Jerusalem (1983). Tailoring trades, but basically about the radical movements of the nineteenth century.
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R. Whipp, ‘Plenty of Excuses, No Money’, Society for the Study of Labour History, 49 (1984). Aspects of women’s role in the National Society of Pottery Workers, and the interconnection of home, work and union for many women.
Meta Zimmeck, ‘Jobs for the Girls: the expansion of clerical work for women 1850–1914’, in [51].
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© 1988 The Economic History Society
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Roberts, E. (1988). Women’s Work 1840–1940. In: Clarkson, L.A. (eds) British Trade Union and Labour History A Compendium. Studies in Economic and Social History. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10939-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10939-5_4
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