Eleanor Gordon
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201434
- eISBN:
- 9780191674884
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201434.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, ...
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This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and the forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. Focusing particularly on women working in Dundee's jute industry, the study integrates labour history and the history of gender. It is a thorough account, which challenges many assumptions about the organizational apathy of women workers and about the inevitable division between workplace and domestic ideologies. It makes a contribution to current historiographical debates over the sexual division of labour, working-class consciousness, and domestic ideologies, and to the history of women in Scotland.Less
This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and the forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. Focusing particularly on women working in Dundee's jute industry, the study integrates labour history and the history of gender. It is a thorough account, which challenges many assumptions about the organizational apathy of women workers and about the inevitable division between workplace and domestic ideologies. It makes a contribution to current historiographical debates over the sexual division of labour, working-class consciousness, and domestic ideologies, and to the history of women in Scotland.
Judy B. Rosener
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195119145
- eISBN:
- 9780199854882
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195119145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
The United States has a large number of well-educated, experienced professional women ready, willing, and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. They represent a ...
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The United States has a large number of well-educated, experienced professional women ready, willing, and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. They represent a great, untapped economic resource and this book argues that this is America’s competitive secret. Drawing on in-depth interviews with top executives and middle managers, and the latest research on working women and organizational change, the author describes the unique contribution of female professionals. Her profiles of top women managers reveal that they cope well with ambiguity, are comfortable sharing power, and tend to empower others' leadership traits that lead to increased employee productivity, innovation, and profits. The book offers evidence that the changes that help organizations more fully utilize the talents of women are the same changes that will give them an important edge in today’s global workplace. The author explains why the glass ceiling still prevents many competent women from reaching the upper echelons of management. She analyses why women and men are perceived and evaluated differently at work, and provides new insight into the feelings of men who are asked to interact with women in new roles when there are few new rules. The book shows that removing the glass ceiling can no longer be viewed solely in terms of social equity—it is now an economic imperative.Less
The United States has a large number of well-educated, experienced professional women ready, willing, and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. They represent a great, untapped economic resource and this book argues that this is America’s competitive secret. Drawing on in-depth interviews with top executives and middle managers, and the latest research on working women and organizational change, the author describes the unique contribution of female professionals. Her profiles of top women managers reveal that they cope well with ambiguity, are comfortable sharing power, and tend to empower others' leadership traits that lead to increased employee productivity, innovation, and profits. The book offers evidence that the changes that help organizations more fully utilize the talents of women are the same changes that will give them an important edge in today’s global workplace. The author explains why the glass ceiling still prevents many competent women from reaching the upper echelons of management. She analyses why women and men are perceived and evaluated differently at work, and provides new insight into the feelings of men who are asked to interact with women in new roles when there are few new rules. The book shows that removing the glass ceiling can no longer be viewed solely in terms of social equity—it is now an economic imperative.
Ellen Anne McLarney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158488
- eISBN:
- 9781400866441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158488.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This chapter traces the proliferation of debates over women's work—tangled dialectics among development experts, feminists, academics, politicians, Marxists, Azharis, Islamists, and journalists like ...
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This chapter traces the proliferation of debates over women's work—tangled dialectics among development experts, feminists, academics, politicians, Marxists, Azharis, Islamists, and journalists like Iman Muhammad Mustafa. Mustafa charts a specific chronological timeline of these debates, from 1974 to 1989, a period of intense economic and political liberalization in Egypt. In 1989, in the midst of economic crisis and Egypt's contentious negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, Mustafa published a ten-part series of articles in the mainstream economic journal al-Ahram al-Iqtisadi criticizing “the working woman.” The articles identified women as a great, untapped resource of human capital in Egypt. Using the statistics, charts, arguments, and language of development reports, Mustafa critiqued Western, secular, feminist valorization of remunerated labor through a celebration of the economic and social worth of women's work in the household economy.Less
This chapter traces the proliferation of debates over women's work—tangled dialectics among development experts, feminists, academics, politicians, Marxists, Azharis, Islamists, and journalists like Iman Muhammad Mustafa. Mustafa charts a specific chronological timeline of these debates, from 1974 to 1989, a period of intense economic and political liberalization in Egypt. In 1989, in the midst of economic crisis and Egypt's contentious negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, Mustafa published a ten-part series of articles in the mainstream economic journal al-Ahram al-Iqtisadi criticizing “the working woman.” The articles identified women as a great, untapped resource of human capital in Egypt. Using the statistics, charts, arguments, and language of development reports, Mustafa critiqued Western, secular, feminist valorization of remunerated labor through a celebration of the economic and social worth of women's work in the household economy.
Amy M. Froide
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270606
- eISBN:
- 9780191710216
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270606.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This book presents original research on women who never married in early modern England. It reintroduces us to the category of marital status and to the significant ways it shaped the life ...
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This book presents original research on women who never married in early modern England. It reintroduces us to the category of marital status and to the significant ways it shaped the life experiences of early modern women. The book argues that to understand early modern women we need to de-center marriage and not accept the marital couple as the norm. It is both a socio-economic and cultural study of singlewomen. It reveals the importance of kinship for women without husbands and children as well as the significant roles that singlewomen played in their own kin groups as caretakers and providers. It examines the contributions of working and propertied singlewomen in early modern towns. It also traces the origins of the spinster and old maid stereotypes to the late 17th century, revealing how singlewomen became marginalized in Protestant English society. The book concludes by examining the writing of never-married women and what it reveals about their own views on singleness. While few women chose singleness outright, many women who never married lived full lives and made important contributions to their families and communities.Less
This book presents original research on women who never married in early modern England. It reintroduces us to the category of marital status and to the significant ways it shaped the life experiences of early modern women. The book argues that to understand early modern women we need to de-center marriage and not accept the marital couple as the norm. It is both a socio-economic and cultural study of singlewomen. It reveals the importance of kinship for women without husbands and children as well as the significant roles that singlewomen played in their own kin groups as caretakers and providers. It examines the contributions of working and propertied singlewomen in early modern towns. It also traces the origins of the spinster and old maid stereotypes to the late 17th century, revealing how singlewomen became marginalized in Protestant English society. The book concludes by examining the writing of never-married women and what it reveals about their own views on singleness. While few women chose singleness outright, many women who never married lived full lives and made important contributions to their families and communities.
Sara Horrell
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199212668
- eISBN:
- 9780191712807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212668.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Changes in household structure, fertility rates, and domestic technology all have consequences for labour market behaviour. This chapter explores these links. It starts by describing household ...
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Changes in household structure, fertility rates, and domestic technology all have consequences for labour market behaviour. This chapter explores these links. It starts by describing household structure and the role of children at the start and end of the 20th century. The next section considers the impact of domestic technology on women's availability for work. The final section considers the interrelationship between work, fertility decisions, and divorce.Less
Changes in household structure, fertility rates, and domestic technology all have consequences for labour market behaviour. This chapter explores these links. It starts by describing household structure and the role of children at the start and end of the 20th century. The next section considers the impact of domestic technology on women's availability for work. The final section considers the interrelationship between work, fertility decisions, and divorce.
Elisha P. Renne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199270576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270570.003.0015
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Compares characteristics associated with women's status commonly used in demographic surveys with women's status, matsayi mace, as it is defined by a group of Hausa Moslem women in the northern ...
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Compares characteristics associated with women's status commonly used in demographic surveys with women's status, matsayi mace, as it is defined by a group of Hausa Moslem women in the northern Nigerian town of Zaria. Their assessments of appropriate gender roles and what constitutes ‘women's status’, which include the importance of respectability, mutunci, and seclusion, suggest that while distinctive cultural ideas and religious beliefs are essential in framing these definitions, there is no necessary congruence with the conventional ‘social indicators’, such as women's education and work, used in standardized surveys.Less
Compares characteristics associated with women's status commonly used in demographic surveys with women's status, matsayi mace, as it is defined by a group of Hausa Moslem women in the northern Nigerian town of Zaria. Their assessments of appropriate gender roles and what constitutes ‘women's status’, which include the importance of respectability, mutunci, and seclusion, suggest that while distinctive cultural ideas and religious beliefs are essential in framing these definitions, there is no necessary congruence with the conventional ‘social indicators’, such as women's education and work, used in standardized surveys.
Patricia Penn Hilden
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198228837
- eISBN:
- 9780191678837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228837.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the efforts of working Belgian women to create their own movement within the wider politics of their class. It provides a brief narrative of the experiences of the most notable ...
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This chapter examines the efforts of working Belgian women to create their own movement within the wider politics of their class. It provides a brief narrative of the experiences of the most notable feminists from the textile mills in Ghent including Emilie Claeys and Nellie Van Kol. The activities of these two women had important consequences for Ghent's Second International socialist movement called Vooruit.Less
This chapter examines the efforts of working Belgian women to create their own movement within the wider politics of their class. It provides a brief narrative of the experiences of the most notable feminists from the textile mills in Ghent including Emilie Claeys and Nellie Van Kol. The activities of these two women had important consequences for Ghent's Second International socialist movement called Vooruit.
Eleanor Hubbard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609345
- eISBN:
- 9780191739088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609345.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about ...
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This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about working women's mobility, contact with the public, and independence. Instead, hostility to female competition kept women out of most occupations. Under these circumstances, women worked as craftswomen, marketwomen, hucksters, fishwives, nurses, midwives, charwomen, laundresses, starchers, the keepers of victualling houses, alehouses, inns, and chandler's shops, and more – often very public kinds of work. They took pride in their contributions to household economies, although the earnings they received in the over‐crowded female labor sector were always low. Even within these marginal occupations, they risked being accused of earning private gains that injured the common good. The chapter concludes by comparing women's work opportunities ca. 1600 to the situations in medieval and eighteenth‐century London.Less
This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about working women's mobility, contact with the public, and independence. Instead, hostility to female competition kept women out of most occupations. Under these circumstances, women worked as craftswomen, marketwomen, hucksters, fishwives, nurses, midwives, charwomen, laundresses, starchers, the keepers of victualling houses, alehouses, inns, and chandler's shops, and more – often very public kinds of work. They took pride in their contributions to household economies, although the earnings they received in the over‐crowded female labor sector were always low. Even within these marginal occupations, they risked being accused of earning private gains that injured the common good. The chapter concludes by comparing women's work opportunities ca. 1600 to the situations in medieval and eighteenth‐century London.
Patricia Penn Hilden
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198228837
- eISBN:
- 9780191678837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228837.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the Association Internationale des Travailleurs, organized by Belgium women working in the textile industry under the aegis of the First International, and complete with an ...
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This chapter examines the Association Internationale des Travailleurs, organized by Belgium women working in the textile industry under the aegis of the First International, and complete with an ideology of women's place. The women insisted on a prominent public role in the class struggle and claimed for themselves a purely domestic sphere. By the end of the First International, it was clear that Belgium's working women would play a key role in whatever movement eventually succeeded in organizing the nation's proletariat.Less
This chapter examines the Association Internationale des Travailleurs, organized by Belgium women working in the textile industry under the aegis of the First International, and complete with an ideology of women's place. The women insisted on a prominent public role in the class struggle and claimed for themselves a purely domestic sphere. By the end of the First International, it was clear that Belgium's working women would play a key role in whatever movement eventually succeeded in organizing the nation's proletariat.
Sylvia Jenkins Cook
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327809
- eISBN:
- 9780199870547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327809.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter examines the Dial (1840-44), the magazine of the American romantics, which appeared in New England almost exactly contemporaneously with the Lowell Offering. The Dial's contributors, ...
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This chapter examines the Dial (1840-44), the magazine of the American romantics, which appeared in New England almost exactly contemporaneously with the Lowell Offering. The Dial's contributors, like the Offering's, explored the possibilities for the full development of mind, soul, and body within the context of the dramatic changes in mid-19th century American society. Like the Offering, for much of its duration the Dial was under the editorship of a woman, in this case Margaret Fuller, who tried to expand the romantic ideals of male transcendentalists and test their applicability to women. Although she did not extend this expansion to women outside her own social and educational class during her Dial years, she demonstrated in her writing new possibilities and directions for intellectually ambitious women and in her life the quest for new work and untried experiences. While many transcendentalists, like Emerson, remained distinctly class-bound in their daily lives, they celebrated in their writing a hope for individual intellectual autonomy that recognized no limits. Thus they made a profound impression on a much broader range of people than the brief list of subscribers to their little magazine might suggest, including working women who went unmentioned in their pages but read them avidly.Less
This chapter examines the Dial (1840-44), the magazine of the American romantics, which appeared in New England almost exactly contemporaneously with the Lowell Offering. The Dial's contributors, like the Offering's, explored the possibilities for the full development of mind, soul, and body within the context of the dramatic changes in mid-19th century American society. Like the Offering, for much of its duration the Dial was under the editorship of a woman, in this case Margaret Fuller, who tried to expand the romantic ideals of male transcendentalists and test their applicability to women. Although she did not extend this expansion to women outside her own social and educational class during her Dial years, she demonstrated in her writing new possibilities and directions for intellectually ambitious women and in her life the quest for new work and untried experiences. While many transcendentalists, like Emerson, remained distinctly class-bound in their daily lives, they celebrated in their writing a hope for individual intellectual autonomy that recognized no limits. Thus they made a profound impression on a much broader range of people than the brief list of subscribers to their little magazine might suggest, including working women who went unmentioned in their pages but read them avidly.
Patricia Penn Hilden
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198228837
- eISBN:
- 9780191678837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228837.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the spread of female industrial labour in Belgium during the later part of the 19th century. It describes employment of women in many new occupations that became available as ...
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This chapter examines the spread of female industrial labour in Belgium during the later part of the 19th century. It describes employment of women in many new occupations that became available as the process of industrial transformation continued. During this period, bourgeois attitudes toward women's work grew more extreme because of extensive social unrest and the mass explosion of working class resentment in 1886.Less
This chapter examines the spread of female industrial labour in Belgium during the later part of the 19th century. It describes employment of women in many new occupations that became available as the process of industrial transformation continued. During this period, bourgeois attitudes toward women's work grew more extreme because of extensive social unrest and the mass explosion of working class resentment in 1886.
Hannah Barker
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199299713
- eISBN:
- 9780191714955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199299713.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book argues that businesswomen were central to urban society and to the operation and development of commerce in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It presents a rich and complicated ...
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This book argues that businesswomen were central to urban society and to the operation and development of commerce in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It presents a rich and complicated picture of lower-middling life and female enterprise in three northern English towns: Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield. The stories told by a wide range of sources, including trade directories, newspaper advertisements, court records, correspondence, and diaries, demonstrate the very differing fortunes and levels of independence that individual businesswomen enjoyed. Yet, as a group, their involvement in the economic life of towns and, in particular, the manner in which they exploited and facilitated commercial development, forced a reassessment of the understanding of both gender relations and urban culture in late Georgian England. In contrast to the traditional historical consensus that the independent woman of business during this period - particularly those engaged in occupations deemed 'unfeminine' - was insignificant and no more than an oddity, businesswomen are presented not as footnotes to the main narrative, but as central characters in a story of unprecedented social and economic transformation.Less
This book argues that businesswomen were central to urban society and to the operation and development of commerce in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It presents a rich and complicated picture of lower-middling life and female enterprise in three northern English towns: Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield. The stories told by a wide range of sources, including trade directories, newspaper advertisements, court records, correspondence, and diaries, demonstrate the very differing fortunes and levels of independence that individual businesswomen enjoyed. Yet, as a group, their involvement in the economic life of towns and, in particular, the manner in which they exploited and facilitated commercial development, forced a reassessment of the understanding of both gender relations and urban culture in late Georgian England. In contrast to the traditional historical consensus that the independent woman of business during this period - particularly those engaged in occupations deemed 'unfeminine' - was insignificant and no more than an oddity, businesswomen are presented not as footnotes to the main narrative, but as central characters in a story of unprecedented social and economic transformation.
Eleanor Gordon
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201434
- eISBN:
- 9780191674884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201434.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter deals with Scottish politics between 1900 and 1914 and its impact on working-class women. The Labour Party was even less successful in Scotland than in other parts of the country. In the ...
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This chapter deals with Scottish politics between 1900 and 1914 and its impact on working-class women. The Labour Party was even less successful in Scotland than in other parts of the country. In the second decade of the 20th century there was a flowering of socialist and labour organizations, which spearheaded a number of campaigns attracting widespread popular support for the Labour Party among the working class. The issues around which these campaigns were conducted ranged from the housing question and unemployment to school meals and the medical inspection of school children. The largest of the working-class women's organizations, the SCWG, was not only aimed at housewives, but more particularly at the wives of better-off sections of the working class.Less
This chapter deals with Scottish politics between 1900 and 1914 and its impact on working-class women. The Labour Party was even less successful in Scotland than in other parts of the country. In the second decade of the 20th century there was a flowering of socialist and labour organizations, which spearheaded a number of campaigns attracting widespread popular support for the Labour Party among the working class. The issues around which these campaigns were conducted ranged from the housing question and unemployment to school meals and the medical inspection of school children. The largest of the working-class women's organizations, the SCWG, was not only aimed at housewives, but more particularly at the wives of better-off sections of the working class.
Janet Galligani Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195338959
- eISBN:
- 9780199867103
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338959.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter evidences the currency and value of the Farm Woman as cultural trope within various Progressive Era discourses, and considers women’s actual and theoretical positions in reference to ...
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This chapter evidences the currency and value of the Farm Woman as cultural trope within various Progressive Era discourses, and considers women’s actual and theoretical positions in reference to such appropriations. It explores how male agrarian-reform efforts routinely evaded discussions of women’s interests, even as other arenas of social theory (eugenics, for instance) valorized the Farm Woman as a vehicle of nativism and traditional gendered values. It also addresses the various paradigms available for defining farm women, and by implication women more generally, in reference to some of the social concerns that structured modernity, including attitudes toward production and reproduction, women’s work for wages, and commodity consumption.Less
This chapter evidences the currency and value of the Farm Woman as cultural trope within various Progressive Era discourses, and considers women’s actual and theoretical positions in reference to such appropriations. It explores how male agrarian-reform efforts routinely evaded discussions of women’s interests, even as other arenas of social theory (eugenics, for instance) valorized the Farm Woman as a vehicle of nativism and traditional gendered values. It also addresses the various paradigms available for defining farm women, and by implication women more generally, in reference to some of the social concerns that structured modernity, including attitudes toward production and reproduction, women’s work for wages, and commodity consumption.
Sylvia J Cook
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327809
- eISBN:
- 9780199870547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327809.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ...
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This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ways that their hopes for lives of full development were fulfilled, exploited, and often disappointed — a process repeated when immigrant women entered factories and sweatshops early in the 20th century. It investigates their literary productions, from the New England factory magazine, the Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of women operatives, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's novel of sweatshop workers, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. Working women's fascination with books and writing evolved in the context of an American romanticism that encouraged ideals of self-reliance, although not in factory “girls”. Their efforts to pursue a life of the mind while engaged in manual labor also coincided with the emergence of middle-class women writers from private lives into the literary marketplace. However, while middle-class women risked forfeiting their femininity by trying to earn money, factory women were accused of betraying their class by attempting to be literary. The book traces the romantic literariness of several generations of working-class women and the broader literary responses to them from male romantic authors, popular novelists, and union writers for the Knights of Labor. The most significant literary interaction, however, is with middle-class women writers, many of whom responded sympathetically to workers' economic and social inequities, but balked at promoting their artistic and intellectual equality.Less
This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ways that their hopes for lives of full development were fulfilled, exploited, and often disappointed — a process repeated when immigrant women entered factories and sweatshops early in the 20th century. It investigates their literary productions, from the New England factory magazine, the Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of women operatives, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's novel of sweatshop workers, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. Working women's fascination with books and writing evolved in the context of an American romanticism that encouraged ideals of self-reliance, although not in factory “girls”. Their efforts to pursue a life of the mind while engaged in manual labor also coincided with the emergence of middle-class women writers from private lives into the literary marketplace. However, while middle-class women risked forfeiting their femininity by trying to earn money, factory women were accused of betraying their class by attempting to be literary. The book traces the romantic literariness of several generations of working-class women and the broader literary responses to them from male romantic authors, popular novelists, and union writers for the Knights of Labor. The most significant literary interaction, however, is with middle-class women writers, many of whom responded sympathetically to workers' economic and social inequities, but balked at promoting their artistic and intellectual equality.
Ashwani Deshpande
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198072034
- eISBN:
- 9780199081028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198072034.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The previous chapters suggest that identity matters in the real world, even in strongly market-oriented situations. What happens when there are overlapping identities? There are several contexts ...
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The previous chapters suggest that identity matters in the real world, even in strongly market-oriented situations. What happens when there are overlapping identities? There are several contexts where identity has multiple contours and every individual simultaneously has multiple identities: race, religion, nationality, gender, and so forth. This chapter focuses on two important definitions of identity in the Indian context: caste and gender. It reports the evidence on the changing nature of that overlap. In addition to economic indicators, it also discusses the evidence on women's autonomy and decision-making ability within the household and on domestic violence, based on two rounds of a large survey. Recent evidence suggests that women from castes lowest in the hierarchy are trapped in a cesspool of poverty, deprivation, and reduced autonomy.Less
The previous chapters suggest that identity matters in the real world, even in strongly market-oriented situations. What happens when there are overlapping identities? There are several contexts where identity has multiple contours and every individual simultaneously has multiple identities: race, religion, nationality, gender, and so forth. This chapter focuses on two important definitions of identity in the Indian context: caste and gender. It reports the evidence on the changing nature of that overlap. In addition to economic indicators, it also discusses the evidence on women's autonomy and decision-making ability within the household and on domestic violence, based on two rounds of a large survey. Recent evidence suggests that women from castes lowest in the hierarchy are trapped in a cesspool of poverty, deprivation, and reduced autonomy.
Elizabeth Hayes Turner
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195086881
- eISBN:
- 9780199854578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195086881.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter discusses the women who joined benevolent societies and how they acted and moved among the suffering and the destitute. The women never lost their patronizing air, nor did they openly ...
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This chapter discusses the women who joined benevolent societies and how they acted and moved among the suffering and the destitute. The women never lost their patronizing air, nor did they openly criticize an economic system that left women underpaid. They helped working women adapt to the realities of the workplace. They provided a type of insurance for employees at a time when sick pay and unemployment compensation did not exist. They were able to develop a case system of social welfare in Galveston long before the advent of professional social workers. Women sought more ways to be more effective, to help those who were unable to care for themselves. They formed parallel institutions to care for the city's dependents. They became public edifices and public endeavors which paid homage to female effectiveness.Less
This chapter discusses the women who joined benevolent societies and how they acted and moved among the suffering and the destitute. The women never lost their patronizing air, nor did they openly criticize an economic system that left women underpaid. They helped working women adapt to the realities of the workplace. They provided a type of insurance for employees at a time when sick pay and unemployment compensation did not exist. They were able to develop a case system of social welfare in Galveston long before the advent of professional social workers. Women sought more ways to be more effective, to help those who were unable to care for themselves. They formed parallel institutions to care for the city's dependents. They became public edifices and public endeavors which paid homage to female effectiveness.
P. J. P. Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201540
- eISBN:
- 9780191674938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201540.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, Economic History
This chapter explores the full range of female economic activity over a comparatively long period of time. The dynamic analysis is designed to shed light both on the range of employment women had ...
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This chapter explores the full range of female economic activity over a comparatively long period of time. The dynamic analysis is designed to shed light both on the range of employment women had access to and on how and why this changed within the period studied. The chapter locates women's work within the context of both the familial economy and the wider urban and rural economies. It considers how far women's role was circumscribed by lack of access to wealth and training, by marital status, by the particular needs of the local economy, and by household and family responsibilities. Underlying all these is how far women were able to support themselves, and how this changed in response to secular movements in the economy. The analysis focuses on York, and its rural hinterland, notably the West Riding and Howdenshire, areas with substantial poll tax evidence.Less
This chapter explores the full range of female economic activity over a comparatively long period of time. The dynamic analysis is designed to shed light both on the range of employment women had access to and on how and why this changed within the period studied. The chapter locates women's work within the context of both the familial economy and the wider urban and rural economies. It considers how far women's role was circumscribed by lack of access to wealth and training, by marital status, by the particular needs of the local economy, and by household and family responsibilities. Underlying all these is how far women were able to support themselves, and how this changed in response to secular movements in the economy. The analysis focuses on York, and its rural hinterland, notably the West Riding and Howdenshire, areas with substantial poll tax evidence.
Patricia Penn Hilden
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198228837
- eISBN:
- 9780191678837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228837.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the condition and experiences of women who worked in the coal mining sector in Belgium during the 1830s. It traces women's work first in Charleroi, then in the Borinage and ...
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This chapter examines the condition and experiences of women who worked in the coal mining sector in Belgium during the 1830s. It traces women's work first in Charleroi, then in the Borinage and Liege. It also discusses the social narrative of women's very difficult public and private lives as the nation was engaged in the process of discovering and solidifying its social, political, and national identities.Less
This chapter examines the condition and experiences of women who worked in the coal mining sector in Belgium during the 1830s. It traces women's work first in Charleroi, then in the Borinage and Liege. It also discusses the social narrative of women's very difficult public and private lives as the nation was engaged in the process of discovering and solidifying its social, political, and national identities.
Patricia Penn Hilden
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198228837
- eISBN:
- 9780191678837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228837.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the emergence of the so-called ‘woman question’ in public debate in Belgium, focusing on women coal miners. It suggests that the discussion on this issue reflected the often ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of the so-called ‘woman question’ in public debate in Belgium, focusing on women coal miners. It suggests that the discussion on this issue reflected the often bizarre and highly imaginative roles women coal-miners played in the bourgeois imagination during the 1860s and 1870s. This may be attributed to the fact that the debates involved members of the ruling elite.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of the so-called ‘woman question’ in public debate in Belgium, focusing on women coal miners. It suggests that the discussion on this issue reflected the often bizarre and highly imaginative roles women coal-miners played in the bourgeois imagination during the 1860s and 1870s. This may be attributed to the fact that the debates involved members of the ruling elite.
