In the second half of the nineteenth century in England, white-collar occupations for women began to grow. A handful of women qualified as doctors. According to the 1861 census slightly under 200,000 women were employed in teaching, nursing, shop, and clerical work in England and Wales; by 1911 there were almost 800,000 of them. These types of employment grew faster than other types of employment for both men and women: in 1861 they had represented 7.6 percent of the total working population; by 1911 they represented 14.1 percent.
Young's title promises a broad and ample analysis of this phenomenon, but her book is partial and selective. Apart from arguing that the primary driver of this expansion was demographic, representing the excess of women over men in the population, she does not deal in numbers. She chooses to focus on only two occupations, nursing and typing. Both, it could be argued,...
