eishiya reviewed Victorian Working Women by Hiley, Michael
Portraits from an oft-ignored world
3 stars
Although the popular image of the Victorian woman, both now and during the era, is that she took care of the home, this was only true for "respectable" households, that is, those of the middle and upper classes. Among the lower classes, many women worked.
"Victorian Working Women" discusses such women, as well as their often-unknowing influence on the broader women's right movement. Maids, street-sellers, mine workers, fishers, gymnasts, and other women workers are featured and pictured here. The book draws primarily from Arthur Munby's diaries and photo collection, supplemented by other sources, though it still clearly reflects Munby's biases and limitations in its coverage, for example, sex workers and rural workers barely feature. Still, it is a valuable collection of images and descriptions of groups of women that other works seldom bother with, showing the way they dressed both at work and at rest, the way they spoke, and …
Although the popular image of the Victorian woman, both now and during the era, is that she took care of the home, this was only true for "respectable" households, that is, those of the middle and upper classes. Among the lower classes, many women worked.
"Victorian Working Women" discusses such women, as well as their often-unknowing influence on the broader women's right movement. Maids, street-sellers, mine workers, fishers, gymnasts, and other women workers are featured and pictured here. The book draws primarily from Arthur Munby's diaries and photo collection, supplemented by other sources, though it still clearly reflects Munby's biases and limitations in its coverage, for example, sex workers and rural workers barely feature. Still, it is a valuable collection of images and descriptions of groups of women that other works seldom bother with, showing the way they dressed both at work and at rest, the way they spoke, and what and who they cared about.
There are many photos, but most are quite small - likely a consequence of Munby's photo collection being mostly cartes de visite, which were small prints to begin with, and not always of high enough quality to make for good enlargements or reprints.
For what it is, this book is good, especially if you're not interested in reading Munby yourself, and my 3-star rating is probably unfair. However, I can't bring myself to rate it higher as a reference for writers and artists, because, likely due to the scarcity of available information and imagery rather than a lack of effort on the author's part, it just feels lacking.