Male protection, which the first three sections carefully show to be an illusion, is suddenly a woman's best hope. Maggie's decision to quit her job and stay home is similarly equivocal. Down'' could have used some rethinking, the novel nonetheless presents a remarkable portrait of the women themselves. Literature is full of prostitutes, of course, but most of them are male fantasies of one sort or another - hearts of gold, sex goddesses, calculating bitches, masochists. Brenda and her friends fit none of these stereotypes.
Prostitution is here a matter of practical economics.
For these uneducated women, most of whom have children and no husbands, the only jobs available are in the chicken factory or on the streets. And the streets pay better and offer more camaraderie, more autonomy and, ironically, hours more suitable for child rearing. In Britain, Mrs. Barker is regarded as a regional writer, but this is surely a trivializing misnomer. It's that Mrs. Barker is able to make us see her characters from within, as they see themselves, and thereby reveals the full individuality and humanity of women who have got short shrift both in literature and in life. That makes Pat Barker a feminist.