Female Occupations: Women’s Employment 1850 – 1950

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Female Occupations: Women’s Employment 1850 – 1950 by Margaret Ward

This is a carefully researched A-Z of women’s employment, covering over 100 years of change.  The entries themselves are based on an encyclopaedic approach, each full of interest and information, as they chart the steadily evolving status of women and the job opportunities open to them.

Early occupations considered socially suitable included dairymaid, fisherwoman, governess, and stone picker.  The decline of domestic service and the effect of two world wars, gave way to the modern era of access for women to all categories and ranks of employment from accountants, army officers and diplomats, to captains of industry and even prime minister.

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.

Margaret Ward is a writer and social historian whose books include The Female Line and Starting Out in Family History.