This volume brings together an interdisciplinary collection of essays on the cultural practices and identities associated with women's work in modern Britain. The volume is divided into five thematic sections: the meaning of work, factory labour, youth, medicine and science, and women and war. The essays examine a wide-range of primary sources including literary fiction, popular magazines, social commentaries, oral testimony and autobiographical writing.

Dr Krista Cowman, The School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK and Dr Louise A. Jackson, School of History and Classics, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Contents: Introduction: Women's work, a cultural history, Krista Cowman and Louise A. Jackson. Part I What Do We Mean by Work?: Victorian liberal feminism and the 'idea' of work, Joyce Senders Pedersen; Religion and the meanings of work: four cases from among the bright circle of women Quakers, Sandra Stanley Holton; Good housekeeping: professionalising the housewife, 1920-50, Judy Giles. Part II Factory Labour: 'Women of true respectability?' Investigating the London work-girl, 1880-1900, Emma Liggins; 'It was just a real camaraderie thing': socialising, socialisation and shopfloor culture at the Rowntree factory, York, Emma Robertson. Part III Youth: 'You'd the feeling you wanted to help': young women, employment and the family in inter-war England, Selina Todd; 'Be yourself': Girl and the business of growing up in late 1950s England, Stephanie Spencer. Part IV Science and Medicine: 'Union is strength': the medical women's federation and the politics of professionalism, 1917-30, Kaarin Michaelsen; The laboratory: a suitable place for a woman? Gender and laboratory culture around 1900, Claire Jones. Part V Women and War: All quiet on the Woolwich front? Literary and cultural constructions of women munitions workers in the First World War, Angela K. Smith; Eve in khaki: women working with the British military, 1915-18, Lucy Noakes; 'Singing while England is burning': women musicians as working music travellers in wartime Britain, 1940-43, David Sheridan. Index.