Introduction

Choosing a date from which to begin a book of this type is a problem in itself and, ultimately, the choice tends to be arbitrary. Why pick the 1840s rather than the mid-eighteenth century when industrialization began to transform work in Britain? I chose to begin with the 1840s because to some extent this was another milestone in the history of women’s relationship to work and also because I did not want to become involved in the debates about women and industrialization as these have been written about elsewhere.2 My interest lies in the extent to which women have challenged dominant ideas about the work they should do and the conditions in

which they should perform it. Further, I am interested in how women have worked together to achieve change. To this end, the 1840s are a good starting point. One can trace a growing awareness of women’s economic position and the conditions in which they worked. For example, the First Report of the Children’s Employment Commission in 1842 investigated the conditions of girls, boys and women working in mines and collieries and exposed not only the horrors of the coal industry, but also revealed in stark terms the contradiction between the way women were represented in Victorian society and the treatment many received by that society.3 This was also the first time that women workers were classified with children and young persons. Questions concerning the morality of allowing women to work in areas deemed masculine were also highlighted in these discussions. Further, there was an increasing realization of what we would call today the feminization of poverty. Along with the growing concern about the treatment of women in industry, there was a corresponding awareness of the large number of working women, both middle-and lower-class, living in relative poverty.