The Invisible Woman: Aspects of Women's Work in Eighteenth-Century Britain

by Baudino,Isabelle

• ISBN13: 9780754635727
• ISBN10: 0754635724
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Women such as housekeepers, nurses, camp followers, governesses, actresses and musicians, to take some of the cases examined in this volume, generally did not have stable, permanent employment. The temporary, unreliable character of such work can be partly related to the changing needs of women at different periods of their lives, but it also has much to do the status of women's work in eighteenth century British society.Providing case-studies of women's work in three different environments - middle and upper class households, male dominated communities and societies and the world of the arts - this collection asks fresh questions about women's aspirations and identity at various levels of society.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface	vii
List of Figures	ix
List of Contributors	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
I. Baudino, J. Carré and C. Révauger
PART I: WOMEN IN THE DOMESTIC SPHERE
1 The Birth of a New Profession: The Housekeeper and her Status in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Gilly Lehmann	9	(18)
2 The Representation of Housework in the Eighteenth-Century Women's Press
Marie-Claire Rouyer-Daney	27	(10)
3 Needlework and the Rights of Women in England at the End of the Eighteenth Century
Christine Hivet	37	(10)
4 Governesses of the Royal Family and the Nobility in Great Britain, 1750-1815
Sophie Loussouarn	47	(12)
PART II: WOMEN IN MALE STRONGHOLDS
5 The Labour and Servitude of Women in the Highlands of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century
Marie-Helene Thevenot-Totems	59	(16)
6 Women in the Army in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Guyonne Leduc	75	(14)
7 Hospital Nurses in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Service without Responsibility
Jacques Carré	89	(12)
8 Claiming their Place in the Corporate Community: Women's Identity in Eighteenth-Century Towns
Deborah Simonton	101	(16)
9 Women Barred from Masonic 'Work': A British Phenomenon
Cécile Revauger	117	(14)
PART III: WOMEN AND THE CULTURAL SCENE
10 The Actress and Eighteenth-Century Ideals of Femininity
Séverine Lancia	131	(8)
11 Women in Action: Elizabeth Inchbald, Heroines and Serving Maids in British Comedies of the 1780's and 1790's
Angela J. Smallwood	139	(8)
12 Profession: Siren-The Ambiguous Status of Professional Women Musicians in Eighteenth-Century England
Pierre Dubois	147	(14)
13 The Lee Sisters: Eighteenth-Century Commercial Heroines
Marion Marceau	161	(12)
14 Eighteenth-Century Images of Working Women
Isabelle Baudino	173	(10)
Index	183