Considering patterns of women's employment from 1700 to 1850, this text focuses on Essex to examine contemporary debates such as the sexual division of labour, continuity or change in women's employment, "separate spheres", "domestic ideology", and the effects of capitalism on women's employment.

Considering patterns of women's employment in the period 1700-1850, industry, agriculture, fashion trades, service, prostitution, and marriage and family life, this work sheds light on contemporary debates in history such as the sexual division of labour, controversy over continuity or change in women's employment, the importance of ideas of "separate spheres" and "domestic ideology", and the overall effects of capitalism on women's employment.

Acknowledgements - Map of Essex - Prologue: Making Shift - Introduction: Women Adapting to Capitalism - De-industrialization and the Staple: the Worsted Industry - Re-industrialization and the Fashion Trades - Agriculture: the Sexual Division of Labour - Shifts of Housewifery: Service as a Female Migration Experience - The Economics of Body and Soul - Epilogue: Continuity and Change in Women's Employment - Bibliography - Index