Victorian Working Women: An historical and literary study of women in British industries and professions 1832-1850

This book was first published in 1929. The working woman was not, a Victorian institution. The word spinster disproves any upstart origin for the sisterhood of toil. Nor was she as a literary figure the discovery of Victorian witers in search of fresh material. Chaucer included unmemorable working women and Charlotte Bronte in 'Shirley' had Caroline Helstone a reflection that spinning 'kept her servants up very late'. It seems that the Victorians see the women worker as an object of oity, p...