Andrew August

How Separate a Sphere? Poor Women and Paid Work in Late-Victorian London

The essay traces patterns of poor womens employment in late-nineteenth-century London. It shows that employment was common among single, married and widowed women, except among mothers of young children. Unpaid 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 household economy. It reveals a culture of womens work among the poor that contrasts sharply with the ideology of separate spheres that excluded middle-class women from employment.

A culture of consolation? Rethinking politics in working‐class London, 1870–1914

In their communities, and in interactions with authorities and profit-seekers, residents of late Victorian London working-class districts struggled forcefully over the distribution of power, resources and prestige. They battled one another, in households and neighbourhoods, enforcing hierarchies and unequal access to resources. Philanthropists met hostile, manipulative and assertive poor people. Working-class Londoners resisted unwelcome state incursions and exploited government resources toward their own ends. They also fought employers and landlords over resources and power. Though their involvement in unions and socialist politics was uneven, these working-class Londoners participated actively in a pervasive politics of everyday life.