Adapting to Capitalism

This book considers patterns of women's employment in the period 1700-1850. Focusing on the county of Essex, material on the worsted industry, agriculture, fashion trades, service, prostitution, and marriage and family life will shed light on contemporary debates in history such as the sexual division of labour, controversy over continuity or change in women's employment, the importance of ideas of 'separate spheres' and 'domestic ideology', and the overall effects of capitalism on women's employment.

Autorentext

PAMELA SHARPE is currently Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in Perth. She was Lecturer in Social and Economic History at the University of Bristol from 1993 to 1999. The author received an MA (Hons) in Economic History from the University of Edinburgh and completed a doctorate in demographic history at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge, in 1989. From 1990 to 1993 she was Essex County Council Research Fellow in Local History at the University of Essex.

Zusammenfassung
Considering patterns of women's employment from 1700 to 1850, this text focuses on Essex to examine contemporary debates such as the sexual division of labour, continuity or change in women's employment, "separate spheres", "domestic ideology", and the effects of capitalism on women's employment.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements Map of Essex Prologue: Making Shift Introduction: Women Adapting to Capitalism De-industrialization and the Staple: the Worsted Industry Re-industrialization and the Fashion Trades Agriculture: the Sexual Division of Labour Shifts of Housewifery: Service as a Female Migration Experience The Economics of Body and Soul Epilogue: Continuity and Change in Women's Employment Bibliography Index