ABSTRACT
As early as the mid-nineteenth century, female labor in the Birmingham small metal industry was common, varied, and acceptable. Definite ideas regarding what constituted “women’s work” prevailed, resulting in a rigidly sex-segregated labor market. The Brassworkers’ leader, W. J. Davis, in particular, was determined to maintain this sharp division, questioning the extension of the labor of women and girls beyond its established confines by suggesting that such labor was illegitimate as it came into competition with that of men. This discourse, however, came under pressure from a variety of sources, most notably the early feminist movement, which stressed freedom of contract in relation to all adult labor.
