HOW SEPARATE A SPHERE - POOR WOMEN AND PAID WORK IN LATE-VICTORIAN LONDON

The essay traces patterns of poor women's employment in late-nineteent h-century London. It shows that employment was common among single, ma rried and widowed women, except among mothers of young children. Unpai d domestic work and paid employment dovetailed into a constant burden of work facing poor women. This challenges the prevalent argument that married women earned wages only at moments of severe crisis in the ho usehold economy. It reveals a culture of women's work among the poor t hat contrasts sharply with the ideology of separate spheres that exclu ded middle-class women from employment.