Working Out Gender

Margaret Walsh, University of Nottingham, UK Margaret Walsh, Sheila Rowbotham, Deborah Simonton, Colin Heywood, Pat Ayers, Valerie Burton, June Hannam, Karen Hunt, Krista Cowman, Jutta Schwarzkopf, Janet Greenlees, Robert Bennett, Fiona Brown.

• Contents: Introduction; Margaret Walsh; New entry points from USA women’s labour history, Sheila Rowbotham; Gendering work in eighteenth-century towns, Deborah Simonton; Age and gender at the workplace: the historical experiences of young people in Western Europe and North America, Colin Heywood; The making of men: masculinities in interwar Liverpool, Pat Ayers; ’Whoring, drinking sailors’: reflections on masculinity from the labour history of 19th-century British shipping, Valerie Burton; Gendering the stories of socialism: an essay in historical criticism, June Hannam and Karen Hunt; ’Giving them something to do’: how the early ILP appealed to women, Krista Cowman; From the periphery to the centre: changing perspectives on American farm women, Margaret Walsh; Gender and technology: inverting established patterns. The Lancashire cotton weaving industry at the start of the twentieth century, Jutta Schwarzkopf; Equal pay for equal work?: a new look at gender and wages in the Lancashire cotton industry, 1790-1855, Janet Greenlees; Gendering cultures in business and labour history: marriage bars in clerical employment, Robert Bennett; ’Treading the double path’: American women’s strategies for legal careers in the interwar generation, c.1920-1941, Fiona Brown; Index.

'This is an excellent collection of papers, challenging, controversial and on occasions contradictory that makes a valuable contribution to reshaping labour history so that it is capable of understanding women, men and work.' Teaching History '...publication in a collected form is fully warranted: all the authors have something new to say, and most in a stimulating way.' The English Historical Review, vol. CXV. no. 464 '... an excellent collection... there is a substantial amount of cutting edge research on display.' Labor History, Vol. 41 '... this volume illustrates well how "working out gender" can breathe new life into labour history by charting new directions, as well as forging multi-layered analyses.' Labour History Review 'Walsh's imaginative collection of essays amalgamates the work of 'old' and 'new' scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, offers nuanced reinterpretations of traditional concerns of labour history, and suggests innovative ways in which gender can be made more central to the subject.' Economic History review LIV No1