In this fresh perspective on one of the major demographic trends in our history, Weiner skillfully interweaves evidence on women's employment, government social policy, and the contemporary debate about women's sphere to explore the interconnections between patterns of women's work and the ideologies that arose in response to that work. In uniting the sources and methods of social and intellectual history, the author illuminates the changes in women's lives during the past 250 years. Originally published in 1985. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820-1980

A mother-daughter legal scholar team “offers unabashedly straightforward advice in a how-to primer for ambitious women . . . [A]ttention-grabbing revelations” (Debora L. Spar, The New York Times Book Review) What Works for Women at Work is a comprehensive and insightful guide for mastering office politics as a woman. Authored by Joan C. Williams, one of the nation’s most-cited experts on women and work, and her daughter, Rachel Dempsey, this unique book offers a multi-generational perspective into the realities of today’s workplace. Often women receive messages that they have only themselves to blame for failing to get ahead. What Works for Women at Work tells women it’s not their fault. Based on interviews with 127 successful working women, over half of them women of color, What Works for Women at Work presents a toolkit for getting ahead in today’s workplace. Distilling over thirty-five years of research, Williams and Dempsey offer four crisp patterns that affect working women. Each represents different challenges and requires different strategies—which is why women need to be savvier than men to survive and thrive in high-powered careers. Williams and Dempsey’s analysis of working women is nuanced and in-depth, going beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all approaches of most career guides for women. Throughout the book, they weave real-life anecdotes from the women they interviewed, along with advice on dealing with difficult situations such as sexual harassment. An essential resource for any working woman. “Many steps beyond Lean In (2013), Sheryl Sandberg’s prescription for getting ahead . . . .[F]illed with street-smart advice and plain old savvy about the way life works in corporate America.” —Booklist, starred review) “A playbook on how to transcend and triumph.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

Why have some working women succeeded at organizing in spite of obstacles to labor activity? Under what circumstances were they able to form alliances with male workers? Carole Turbin explores these and other questions by examining the case of Troy, New York. In the 1860s, Troy produced nearly all the nation's detachable shirt collars and cuffs. The city's collar laundresses were largely Irish immigrants. Their union was officially the nation's first women's labor organization, and one of the best organized. Turbin provides a new perspective on gender and shows that women's family ties are not necessarily a conservative influence but may encourage women's and men's collective action.

Working Women in American Literature, 1865–1950 consists of eight original essays by literary, historical, and multicultural critics on the subject of working women in late-nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century American literature. The volume examines how the American working woman has been presented, misrepresented, and underrepresented in American realistic and naturalistic literature (1865–1930), and by later authors influenced by realism and naturalism. Points explored include: the historical vocational realities of working women (e.g., factory workers, seamstresses, maids, teachers, writers, prostitutes, etc.); the distortions in literary representations of female work; the ways in which these representations still inform the lives of working women today; and new perspectives from queer theory, immigrant studies, and race and class analyses. These essays draw on current feminist thought while remaining mindful of the historicity of the context. The essayists discuss important women writers of the period (for instance, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Rachel Crothers, Willa Cather, and the understudied Ann Petry), as well as canonical writers like Theodore Dreiser, Henry James, and William Dean Howells. The discussions touch on a variety of literary and artistic genres: novels, short stories, other forms of fiction, biographies, dramas, and films. In the introductory essay and throughout the collection, the term “working women in the United States” is deconstructed; the historical and cultural definitions of “work,” and the words “work in America” are redefined through the lens of genders.

"Across the world as here in the US, education and economic opportunity often go hand in hand. But at the same time that education creates opportunities, it can introduce new hurdles for young adults beginning to build their lives. In Working Women in Jordan, anthropologist Fida J. Adely turns to college-educated women in Jordan who migrate from rural provinces to Amman for work. Building on twelve years of ethnographic research in Jordan and extensive interviews with dozens of women, as well as some of their family members, Adely analyzes the effects of developments such as expanded educational opportunities, urbanization, privatization, and the restructuring of the labor market on women's life trajectories, gender roles, the institution of marriage, and kinship relations. Through these diverse stories, Adely tracks meaningful changes in Jordanian society. Jordanian women rarely live apart from their families before marrying, except to attend university; this increase in female mobility, with the support and sometimes encouragement of families, is indicative of significant shifts in gendered expectations. The women Adely profiles are not always motivated to migrate for entirely economic reasons, but also family and personal aspirations, recent family and personal histories, and perceived marriage opportunities. These motivations often come into conflict with one another, however--for example when a family's expectations for financial help compete with personal desires for a more affluent lifestyle. Drawing on the experiences of these young women, as well as extensive analysis of broader socio-economic and demographic shifts, Adely shows how educational structures can act as both facilitators and obstacles to labor force entry. Working Women in Jordan will require us to think more critically about what counts as development, and for whom"--

"The coming woman in politics"--Domestic revolutionaries -- Every mother's child -- Cities of women -- "I wish my mother had a vote"--"These piping times of victory" -- Conclusion : gender and public cultures