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Cover of Women and Work in Britain since 1840

Women and Work in Britain since 1840

  • Published: 29 Jul 2005
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780203088340
  • Print ISBN: 9780415259101
  • eBook ISBN: 9780203088340

The first book of its kind to study this period, Gerry Holloway's essential student resource works chronologically from the early 1840s to the end of the twentieth century and examines over 150 years of women’s employment history.

With suggestions for research topics, an annotated bibliography to aid further research, and a chronology of important events which places the subject in a broader historical context, Gerry Holloway considers how factors such as class, age, marital status, race and locality, along with wider economic and political issues, have affected women’s job opportunities and status.

Key themes and issues that run through the book include:

  • continuity and change

  • the sexual division of labour

  • women as a cheap labour force

  • women’s perceived primary role of motherhood

  • women and trade unions

  • equality and difference

  • education and training.

Students of women’s studies, gender studies and history will find this a fascinating and invaluable addition to their reading material.

Contents

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    Front Matter
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    1
    Introduction
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    1840–70
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      2
      ‘Fit work for women’: Working-class women and paid work in the mid-nineteenth century
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      3
      The problem of the ‘superfluous women’
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    1870–1914
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      4
      Women organizing: Trade unions and other industrial organizations
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      5
      Equal or different?: Divisive issues in the industrial women’s movement
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      6
      Women’s work before the First World War
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    1914–45
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      7
      Out of the cage?: Women’s experience of work during the First World War
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      8
      Women’s work in the inter-war period
    • 9
      Women’s employment in the Second World War
  • 1945 to the end of the century
    • 10
      Back to home and duty again?: The women and work debate, 1945–50
    • 11
      Women’s employment in the 1950s and 1960s
    • 12
      Women’s work in the age of equal opportunities: 1969 to the end of the century
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      13
      Women’s work since the 1840s: Continuity and change
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    Back Matter