Women at Work

Many of our women worked but the stories on this page are accounts where the woman's working life forms the main subject of the narrative.

Here are some resources on this topic:

British Weekly Commissioners Toilers in London; or, inquiries concerning female labour in the metropolis Hodder and Stoughton (1889)

Graham, Ysenda Maxtone Jobs for the Girls: how we set out to work in the typewriter age (Dilly's Story) Abacus (2023)

King, Peter Women Rule the plot: the story of the 100 year fight to establish women’s place in the farm and garden Gerald Duckworth (1999)

Wightman, Clare More than Munitions: women, work and the engineering industries 1900-1950 Routledge (1999)

In addition, there are articles about women's occupations here.

You may also be interested in:

The Devil's Porridge Museum - telling the story of the largest World War I munitions factory and its workers

Twenty Incredible Pictures of Women’s War Work From Our Newspapers The British Newspaper Archive

Norah Penelope Adamson 1881-1905 from Hetton le Hole, County Durham - No Descendants, Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 3 minute read.

Jane Atkinson Aldridge 1868-1947 from Lancaster, Lancashire – Accident, No Descendants, Women at Work, The Mount School. 6 minute read.

Elizabeth Agnes 'Lizzie' Beckwith 1878-1905 from Lambeth, Surrey - Women at Work. 2 minute read.

Agnes Jane Susan Bonham 1837-1906 from Ballintaggert, County Kerry, Ireland - Women at Work. 2 minute read.

Edith Wilkie Borrowdale 1876-1924, Isabella Borrowdale, later Isabella Carr 1878-1923 and Ethel Borrowdale, later Ethel Richardson 1883-? from Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland - No Descendants (Edith), Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 10 minute read.

Anne Hemsley (Annie) Buttercase 1864-1928 from Largo, Fife, Scotland - No Descendants, Women at Work, Fleming Hospital. 2 minute read.

Margaret Cameron, later Margaret Tyer 1863-1943 from Elie, Fife, Scotland - Accident, Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 5 minute read.

Bridget Carroll, later Bridget Pattenden 1861-1935 from Deptford, Kent - Alcoholism, Domestic Abuse, Lawbreaking, Women at Work, St. Joseph's Inebriate Reformatory. Warning, this story includes an account of domestic abuse. 9 minute read.

Dorothy Margaret Cash 1885-1964 from Wandsworth, Surrey – No Descendants, Women at Work, The Mount School. 2 minute read.

Evelyn Altham Jackson, later Evelyn Altham Lowe 1877-1964 from Brinley, Cambridgeshire - No Descendants, Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 3 minute read.

The Leighton Sisters from Herne Hill, Lambeth, Surrey Ada Florence 1870-1863, Frances Mary 1871-1970, Caroline Jessie 1874-1965, Lottie Matilda 1877-1964 and Gertrude Fanny 1880-1931 - Mental Health, No Descendants, Women at Work. 15 minute read.

Frances Emma Ludlam, 1871-1916 from Walton on the Hill, Surrey - No Descendants, Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 6 minute read.

Florence Dent Priestman 1885-1972 and Margaret Priestman 1885-1930 from Hull, Yorkshire – Activism, No Descendants, Suicide, Women at Work, The Mount School. Please note that this story includes an account of a suicide. 8 minute read.

Winifred Alice Reid 'Reidie' 1891-1969 from Leytonstone, Essex - No Descendants, Women at Work. 3 minute read.

The Tangye Girls Sarah Tangye, later Sarah Price 1845-1932 from Illogan, Cornwall; Annie Jayne Tangye 1861--1947 from Birmingham, Worcestershire; Barbara Catherine Tangye, later Barbara Catherine Smith 1904-1991 from Kings Norton, Worcestershire – No Descendants, Women at Work, The Mount School. 8 minute read.

Amy Berta Minto Wilson 1883-1978 and Alice Victoria Minto Wilson 1885-1964 from Walthamstow, Essex – No Descendants, Women at Work, VAD Personnel, The Mount School. 3 minute read.

Euphemia Wright, later Euphemia Cook 1867-1946 from Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland - Accident, Women at Work, Fleming Memorial Hospital. 3 minute read.

Georgina Wyche 1875-1901 from Highbury, London - Mental Health, No Descendants, Suicide, Women at Work. Warning, this story includes an account of suicide. 5 minute read.

There are also stories about women at work on the pages relating to the Cheshire County Training College, The Grange School of Housewifery and on the VAD Personnel page.