The Female Economy
The Millinery and Dressmaking Trades, 1860-1930
The forgotten story of independent businesswoman in the garment trade
Paper – $33
978-0-252-06601-6
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-05464-8
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/01/1997
About the Book
Often thought of as captives of so-called women's work, women in the late 1800s and early 1900s in fact held the reins as the primary entrepreneurs in the millinery and dressmaking trades. Wendy Gamber explores a lost world of women’s dominance to show how ambitious businesswomen--along with the imperious consumers they served--gradually vanished as custom production gave way to a largely unskilled modern garment industry controlled by men. Gamer’s analysis combines labor history, women’s history, business history, and the history of technology while exploring topics like the history of patternmaking and the relationship between entrepreneurship and marriage.About the Author
Wendy Gamber is Byrnes Professor in the Department of History at Indiana University Bloomington. She is the author of The Notorious Mrs. Clem and The Boardinghouse in Nineteenth-Century America.Reviews
"Gamber's analysis is careful and nuanced, showing at every point the mixed impact of the processes of change in the lives of tradewomen and their customers. . . . A valuable contribution to women's labor, business, and social history as well as to the emerging history of consumption."--Susan Porter Benson, author of Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers in American Department StoresRelated Titles
