'Jolly good reading' for girls: discourses of library work and femininity in career novels (Feminization of library work in the United Kingdom in the1950s)

Through a consideration of career novels and historical studies of women's labour market activity, this article explores the feminisation of library w ork in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. It considers the interplay between the numerical and discursive feminisation of the sector by focusing on cont emporary constructions of women's suitability for certain kinds of library work due to supposed essential qualities. It argues that these presumed inh erent characteristics of domesticity, a willingness to serve, orderliness a nd an ability to care for children combined to give femininity some value a s a form of cultural capital: femininity could be traded in the labour mark et for low-level library work. However, although some women progressed to h igher level work, their success was atypical: masculinity had a higher valu e in this market and thus the majority of the more senior posts went to men . Consequently, the article notes that alongside the feminisation of the mo re junior levels of library work, a simultaneous process of masculinisation of the more senior levels was taking place.