Public-domain ebook
Language: en1,195 downloads on Project Gutenberg
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In: Gender & Sexuality Studies·Sociology·Business/Management
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #49912.
Virginia Penny’s work is a practical handbook rather than a philosophical treatise. Framed as a “Cyclopædia of Woman’s Work,” it opens with a preface that explains the author’s purpose: to catalogue the occupations available to women in the United States during the Civil‑War era and to guide industrious women toward respectable livelihoods. Penny stresses that existing literature discusses women’s moral and social roles, but offers no concrete information on how to earn a living. Drawing on three years of field research, visits to factories, workshops, offices, and stores between 1859 and 1861, she assembles statistics, observations, and advice intended to help single women, widows, and those otherwise dependent on male support to find viable employment.
The voice is earnest, didactic, and rooted in mid‑nineteenth‑century reformist rhetoric. Its language reflects the period’s formal style, with occasional editorial notes on spelling and punctuation retained from the original printing. Readers interested in the history of women’s labor, gender‑focused social reform, or the everyday realities of the 1860s will find the book a valuable primary source, while anyone seeking a snapshot of the era’s economic opportunities for women will appreciate its straightforward, research‑driven approach.
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Text originally marked up as bold is surrounded by =, text in italics by _. All footnotes can be found after the Appendix, before the Index. Obvious printer's errors have been remedied, a list of all other changes can be found at the end of the document. Note: There are many opening or closing quotation marks missing in the text. As in most instances, it is impossible to say where the quotation was meant to begin or end, those errors have not been corrected. Only instances where quotation marks were obviously missing or superfluous, were such added. Equally, "Employee/s" is found in various different spellings throughout the book; this inconsistency has been retained.
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