Female Occupations: Women's Employment 1850-1950

by Margaret Ward

The entries in this book are based on an encyclopedic approach, each full of interest and information, as they chart the steadily evolving status of women and the job opportunities open to them. Female Occupations is aimed especially at family historians, and contains over 300 entries. Each of these has some explanation of what the job entailed, the historical setting, and examples or stories of women who were involved with it.

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Louise Culmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinting book, a mine of information about the many and varied forms of employment for women during this period. Aa well as the information about the more well known forms of employment such as domestic service, factory work, teaching, nursing etc, there is much interesting information about less well known female jobs. I didn't know for instance that the post office employed women from its early days, the first postmistress of Salcome in devon for instance was employed in 1821. interesting too to find a woman working as a blacksmith in the 1850s. and even lady lighthouse keepers. An essential book for anyone interested in women's lives in past times.