Informative and engaging while also being fun to read, suitable for history lovers and those with just a passing interest into the subject and or era.

This was a really interesting book, and I loved how it dived into the historical jobs that women have held over the years. I learned a ton about the different jobs outside of the traditional roles of the household that women have historically been sequestered in. 4.5/5

I really enjoyed the fact this book shows the western evolution of women becoming part of the working class, something that is often taken for granted today. I appreciated that there were true accounts of everyday women, not just well known ones to illustrate the author’s points. The fact that some of them were journal entries or seemed like was a personable touch. It also helped me come to terms with the insane stakes women before us had to go through just to get work or complete their work, the author does a very good job of laying this all out.

I liked that it highlights types of work I personally didn’t consider significant, but were actually very impactful to a specific era. There’s aspects that don’t have anything to do with women’s work, but help paint a clearer picture of the times and what women were going through, which I found valuable.

That said, there are aspects where I get disconnected from what the book is trying to communicate, this feeling grows when I got to the end and there was no conclusion tying everything together. Which felt like a missed opportunity, since so much knowledge about this history of women’s work had been shared and there was room to tie it all back to present day or at the very least conclude all the impact from this evolution somehow.

Regardless, there is a wealth of knowledge provided in this book and it would make a great reference point for anyone interested in diving into this topic.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me access to an advanced digital copy. This was a wonderful insight on the work of women throughout history. Things like this are incredibly important and yet they are not taught at school.

While this book is more of an overview of women's work than one that delves into very specific jobs, it does a good job of not just scraping the surface of women's role in the workforce, but also addresses more behind the scenes work and roles. The author's writing is very readable and I would consider this a very accessible book for readers who want to learn more about women's history in a meaningful way.

Smart, engaging, and so needed.

This book is exactly the kind of history I love—clear, focused, and full of purpose. A History of Women’s Work does a fantastic job shining light on the often invisible labor of women throughout the centuries. Janet Few doesn’t just tell us that women’s contributions have been overlooked—she proves it, and then gives those stories the space and attention they’ve always deserved.

I appreciated how the book is broken down into household labor, home-based industries, and paid work outside the home. That structure really helps show the range and complexity of what women were doing, often simultaneously, and often without recognition or pay. It’s also surprisingly readable—grounded in research, but never dense or dry. The case studies are vivid and specific, which helped connect the bigger picture to real people and lives.

One of the things I loved most was how Few encourages readers to dig into their own family histories. She includes practical tips for uncovering the stories of our female ancestors, who might not show up in obvious places like wills or land records but were absolutely vital to their households and communities. That personal invitation really hit home for me—it made the book feel both educational and empowering.

If you’re interested in women’s history, social history, or genealogy, this is a must-read. It fills in so many of the gaps left by traditional narratives and does it in a way that’s both accessible and inspiring.

A light summary about women's work in history. I would recommend this book to readers who do not know anything about this topic. I have not learnt anything, probably because I tend to read many books about history (fiction and non fiction).
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and I have voluntarily written an honest review.

In *A History of Women’s Work*, Janet Few presents a lucid, accessible, and deeply necessary exploration of women’s labor across the centuries—both paid and unpaid, visible and invisible. Drawing from a broad sweep of British and European social history, Few foregrounds the realities of daily life while offering a timely re-examination of how gender has shaped, constrained, and defined the working roles women have occupied throughout history.

Rather than offering a linear or monolithic account, Few presents a kaleidoscopic view of women’s labor—from domestic service, agricultural work, and cottage industries to the complex intersections of motherhood, caregiving, and community labor. She brings particular sensitivity to the roles often omitted from formal economic records: tasks vital to household survival, local economies, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge.

What distinguishes this volume is Few’s careful contextualization. She resists the temptation to romanticize pre-industrial labor or overstate feminist “firsts.” Instead, she constructs a nuanced narrative that pays attention to class, regionality, and historical change. The lives of working-class women, rural laborers, widows, and servants are given as much attention as the exceptional few who broke professional barriers. Her chapters on early industrialization and wartime labor are particularly strong, capturing both the shifts in opportunity and the burdens that accompanied these transitions.

Few’s prose is clear, instructive, and enriched by case studies, archival excerpts, and the occasional personal anecdote, which together render the historical landscape tactile and humane. Readers with an interest in genealogy or social history will also appreciate her attention to documentation practices and the silences in historical records—where women’s contributions are often obscured or misattributed.

**Final Verdict:**
*A History of Women’s Work* is a thoughtful and empowering chronicle of labor, resilience, and adaptation. Janet Few has written a book that not only restores visibility to centuries of overlooked contributions but also invites ongoing reflection on the structures that continue to define women’s economic lives. Essential reading for historians, educators, feminists, and anyone invested in the social architecture of work.

**Rating**: ★★★★★

*Disclaimer: I read an advance copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

A very informative and well arranged book with fascinating insights into the women’s careers of the past. I have greatly enjoyed this read and will probably recommend it to quite a few friends.

First of all, a big thank you for giving me the opportunity to get my hands on this book before its release date!

For anyone interested in diving deeper into feminism and the evolution of women’s roles, this is a perfect read. As someone who loves a good “ragency” book, I was really drawn to how it explores women’s contributions through history—not just in formal jobs, but in all the behind-the-scenes work that often goes unrecognized.

It’s one of those books that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about women and work. It’s not just about what’s in the spotlight but about all the things women have done quietly, with so much creativity and dedication.

Well-written and straight to the point, it delivers a fresh perspective on what “work” has really meant for women over time.

I think this book was interesting and was well-written, but a lot of minor things bothered me. For one, I feel like the chapters were randomly ordered and could be better structured under major headings (a clothing/sewing section, a food section, etc). I also didn't enjoy the random links in the middle of paragraphs and the fact that the pictures were at the very end of the book. This could just be an advanced copy thing and might be fixed in the official release. We get a very good overview of women's work, but I think having more case-study stories (for lack of a better term) would be nice. It was a decent book, just maybe not for me.

Thank you Janet Few, Pen & Sword, and NetGalley for the ARC!

informative with a nice writing style to keep one engaged. it covers an important historical topic in a way that is accessible to most audience, Focusing mostly on British women's work history, with exceptions in a couple chapters that expand a bit further. Kept me curious about each next chapter and I'm glad i was lucky enough to read this early.

I’m pretty torn about this book. I definitely could see myself having used it as a source for a paper in college, and it’s easily digestible, but especially in the first half a lot of smaller things were bothering me.
I did like that we got such a broad overview of so many kinds of women from such a range of time periods. That being said I think I may have more negatives than positives.
I think it’s within the first couple pages that the author refers to ‘ancestresses’ and then (mostly) continues that through the book. I get that it’s about women’s history, but ancestor isn’t a gendered word so ancestress was giving me the same vibes as girl boss where in creating a distinction to focus attention where there’s been a lack of it the attention isn’t equal.
The organization also bothered me. Not just directly having the websites typed out, but also things like having the chapter on glove making between the food and dairy ones, and the health related ones so far apart. It felt very jumpy, and the lack of conclusion sadly didn’t help.