Cover; Contents; General Editor's Preface; Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; 1 Unpicking Gender: Introduction; 2 Setting the Scene: the Indian Summer of the Cotton Industry; 3 The Trouble with Weaving: Deriving Satisfaction from Work; 4 The Weaver's Rest: the Ultimate Escape from Weaving; 5 Making a Bid for a Family Wage: the Struggle around the Automatic Loom; 6 Weaving Fair and Weaving Free: England's Web of Destiny -- Interweaving Shopfloor, Home and Street; 7 Gender Unpicked: Conclusion; Glossary of Technical Terms; Bibliography; Index
Summary
Investigating the radicalising effects of gender in the Lancashire cotton mills between 1880 and 1914, this provocative work challenges the received wisdom that women were passive victims of a sexually segregated workplace. Instead it brings to the fore the proactive efforts of female workers to secure workplace equality, the successes of which led them to question and challenge their assigned position in wider society
