The Invisible Woman

Women such as housekeepers, nurses, camp followers, governesses, actresses and musicians, to take some of the cases examined in this volume, generally did not have stable, permanent employment. The temporary, unreliable character of such work can be partly related to the changing needs of women at different periods of their lives, but it also has much to do the status of women's work in eighteenth century British society. Providing case-studies of women's work in three different environments - middle and upper class households, male dominated communities and societies and the world of the arts - this collection asks fresh questions about women's aspirations and identity at various levels of society.