Gender, rhetoric and regulation: Women's work in the Civil Service and the London County Council, 1900-55

The Civil Service and the London County Council employed tens of thousands of women in Britain in the early twentieth century. As public employers these institutions influenced both each other and private organisations, thereby serving as a barometer or benchmark for the conditions of women’s white-collar employment.

Drawing on a wide range of archival sources – including policy documents, trade union records, women’s movement campaign literature and employees’ personal testimony – this is ...