Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States, 20th Anniversary Edition [Paperback]

Alice Kessler-Harris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195157095 | ISBN-13: 978-0195157093 | Publication Date: 2003 | Edition: 20th

First published in 1982, this pioneering work traces the transformation of "women's work" into wage labor in the United States, identifying the social, economic, and ideological forces that have shaped our expectations of what women do. Basing her observations upon the personal experience of individual American women set against the backdrop of American society, Alice Kessler-Harris examines the effects of class, ethnic and racial patterns, changing perceptions of wage work for women, and the relationship between wage-earning and family roles. In the 20th Anniversary Edition of this landmark book, the author has updated the original and written a new Afterword.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Previous Edition:

"Impressive and deftly written....An example or two cannot do justice to the variety of materials and ideas the author draws together to explain how women workers have functioned as a low-paid reserve force, and why, as wage work became the rule rather than the exception in the 20th century, they found themselves in marginal jobs stereotyped as feminine."--The New York Times Book Review

"Comprehensive and packed with information."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Without a doubt the single best survey of transformation of women's paid and unpaid work from the colonial period to the present."--American Historical Review

About the Author

Alice Kessler-Harris is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History at Columbia University, where she also teaches in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She is the author of A Woman's Wage, Women Have Always Worked and In Pursuit of Equity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 414 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 20th edition (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195157095
• ISBN-13: 978-0195157093
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Vastly Informative, October 22, 2006

By 

Carter Jefferson (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States, 20th Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

I've been reading US women's history for a couple of years now,
working on background for a novel, and I have seen nothing that
matches this book for careful, detailed exposition of the role of
women in the workplace. I'm most familiar with the period from
1880 to 1910, and Kessler-Harris covers that era thoroughly and
convincingly. Reading about the earlier years, though, has greatly
increased my understanding of the period I've been studying.

Kessler-Harris shows how paternalistic beliefs about "woman's
place," and views of women as weak and basically stupid, have from
the beginning deeply influenced the lives of women of all classes, but
she also shows how even the development of new machinery in
factories was shaped by the needs of employers to find cheap
workers--who were, of course, women.

I wish women would read this book. Talk about
consciousness-raising!

Having done a good deal of historical research with primary sources, on other subjects and in other periods, I know Kessler-Harris has been thorough and conscientious. She also writes very well. I'm going to buy the new edition, because whatever she has to say will be fascinating.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!, February 13, 2003

By 

Pat Mulready (Silver Spring, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States, 20th Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

This excellent book describes how women have always worked in what is today the USA. Well written with good examples it tells the story of how women moved from working primarily at home industries through early factory days (and how factories were made acceptable and then degraded into sweat shops and worse). It continues the story through the 19th and 20th centuries, discussing how often public perceptions and rhetoric conflicted with actual work practices. I am very glad it is out in a new edition and that a new generation will have easy access to it.