A History Of European Women S Work

The work patterns of European women from 1700 onwards fluctuate in relation to ideological, demographic, economic and familial changes. In A History of European Women's Work, Deborah Simonton draws together recent research and methodological developments to take an overview of trends in women's work across Europe from the so-called pre-industrial period to the present. Taking the role of gender and class in defining women's labour as a central theme, Deborah Simonton compares and contrasts the pace of change between European countries, distinguishing between Europe-wide issues and local developments.

The European Women's History Reader is a fascinating collection of seminal articles and extracts, exploring the social, economic, religious and political history of women across Europe since the late eighteenth century. This ambitious volume is arranged into four chronological sections all with their own introductions, which provide context for the chapters that follow. The collection also includes a useful general introduction, which makes the articles accessible to students and helps to define this increasingly important area of study.

In dealing with the common experience of women in modern society, this book provides a deeper insight into European women at work, at home, at leisure and in their political and educational functions. Particular emphasis is placed upon the significant cultural differences between women of various classes and nationalities. The first chapters of the book trace the growing importance of women’s work in the economic sector and for modernisation in general. Data from a wide variety of sources, including census figures, government and labour reports and personal accounts, illustrate that women have integrated work roles into a complex life style. The new image of women in society is analysed in the light of the numerous educational, political and legal reforms which took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the impact of feminist ideology is discussed in relation to this. In its overall presentation this book, first published in 1978, illustrates the importance of the history of women not only for an understanding of the female experience but also the process of modernisation in Western Europe in general.

A history of European women's professional activities and organizational roles between 1789 and 1914.

This book illustrates the social, cultural, legal and, political conditions that European women have faced from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Women in European Culture and Society: A Sourcebook includes a range of transnational sources which encompass the history of women in Europe from the beginning of the eighteenth century right up to the present day. Including documents from across Europe, from France and Germany to Estonia, Spain and Russia, organized in a broad chronological spread, the diversity of the sources included in the book is unique – including many never translated into English before. Deborah Simonton offers detailed interpretive introductions that analyse and contextualize the sources. A central feature is its exploration of how women operated within gendered worlds and used their skills and abilities to shape and claim their own identities and to engage with how they contributed as practitioners to shaping European culture and society. With over 200 sources, the book allows us to ‘hear’ women’s voices as they articulate their understandings of their worlds and helps capture a sense of women’s motivations, options and choices as they understood them - allowing readers to focus on either a period or a theme and providing a comparative resource. Ideal for use on its own or as a companion volume to Simonton’s other major work, Women in European Culture and Society: Gender, Skill and Identity since 1700, this sourcebook is an invaluable collection offering vivid first-hand accounts of women’s lives.

From the traditional stereotyped viewpoint, femininity and technology clash. This negative association between women and technology is one of the features of the sex-typing of jobs. Men are seen as technically competent and creative; women are seen as incompetent, suited only to work with machines that have been made and maintained by men. Men identify themselves with technology, and technology is identified with masculinity. The relationship between technology, technological change and women's work is, however, very complex.; Through studies examining technological change and the sexual division of labour, this book traces the origins of the segregation between women's work and men's work and sheds light on the complicated relationship between work and technology. Drawing on research from a number of European countries England, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, international contributors present detailed studies on women's work spanning two centuries. The chapters deal with a variety of work environments - office work, textiles and pottery, food production, civil service and cotton and wool industries.; This work rejects the idea that women were mainly employed as unskilled labour in the industrial revolutions, asserting that skill was required from the women, but that both the historical record about women's work and the social construction of the concept of "skill" have denied this.