ABSTRACT
The world of work contained many of the tensions found in twentieth-century family life. Louise-Marie Compain examines the phenomenon of middle-class women and work, describing its positive factors in terms of self-esteem and intellectual challenge, but she is also aware of the difficulties, acknowledging that women may suffer bruises along the way. In contrast, Gina Lombroso, a physicist who wrote extensively on women, juxtaposes women’s new working pleasures with her perceptions of the drawbacks. The extracts from German sociologists Elisabeth Pfeil and Helge Pross mark the passage of time, with Pfeil’s study capturing women’s views of house and home in 1961 and Pross’s in 1975. This short period tangibly marked significant differences in women’s expectations and perceptions of their roles as housewives and workers.
