Women of the commonwealth
Subtitle: work, family, and social change in nineteenth-century Massachusetts
By: edited by Susan L. Porter.
Contributors: Porter, Susan Lynne.
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Amherst, Mass
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Women -- Employment -- Massachusetts -- History -- 19th century; Women -- Massachusetts -- History -- 19th century; Massachusetts -- Social conditions
Description: These essays reflect the complexity and richness of current scholarship in women's history. Informed by a variety of source materials and methodologies, the ten chapters break down a generalized construct of "womanhood" to explore the dynamics between gender, race, ethnicity, and class.

The first section of the book focuses on women's work, paid and unpaid, and the effects of class, ethnicity, and gender on the structure of the job market and on power relations within the family. The second section revisits the concept of "sisterhood" by looking at women in relation to their families, social and cultural networks, and civic and private institutions.

The editor's introduction sets the essays in the current historiographical context of women's studies and provides a bibliographical essay for the nonspecialist reader.
Notes: Papers presented at a symposium at Westfield State College in October 1992. Includes bibliographical references and index.

6