Shows changes in the economic status of women for the last two decades. The book focuses on women in the workforce, including occupation and wage gains relative to men; poverty status; economic outcome of changes in trends related to living arrangements.

Analyzing the changing conceptions of women's work and family life in the U.S. from colonial times to the present, Matthaei studies the relationship between capitalism and the sexual division of labor. From the integration within the household of family life and commodity production in the pre-Revolutionary period, she traces the separation of these two areas, resulting in the household being considered the woman's sphere and participation in the work force the man's. The author discusses the recent breakdown of this division, which has seen women coming out of their "proper" place and enter into the labor force.

NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT -- OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price Provides a comprehensive review of women in the U.S. economy so that policymakers could have a better understanding of women's essential contributions to our economy and their potential to play a stronger role in our economic recovery. Women resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/minorities-cultures-languages/women

The Female Economy explores that lost world of women's dominance, showing how independent, often ambitious businesswomen and the sometimes imperious consumers they served gradually vanished from the scene as custom production gave way to a largely unskilled modern garment industry controlled by men. Wendy Gamber helps overturn the portrait of wage-earning women as docile souls who would find fulfillment only in marriage and motherhood.