This paper places observational studies of women’s work in historical perspective. We present some of the very early studies (carried out in the period from 1900 to 1930), as well as several examples of fieldwork-based studies of women’s work, undertaken from different perspectives and in varied locations between the 1960s and the mid 1990s. We outline and discuss several areas of thought which have influenced studies of women’s work - the automation debate; the focus on the skills women need in their work; labour market segregation; women’s health; and technology and the redesign of work – and the research methods they used. Our main motivation in this paper is threefold: to demonstrate how fieldwork based studies which have focussed on women’s work have attempted to locate women’s work in a larger context that addresses its visibility and value; to provide a thematic historiography of studies of women’s work, thereby also demonstrating the value of an historical perspective, and a means through which to link it to contemporary themes; and to increase awareness of varied methodological perspectives on how to study work.

本文从历史的角度对女性工作进行观察研究。我们介绍了一些非常早期的研究（在1900年至1930年间进行），以及一些以田野调查为基础的妇女工作研究的例子，这些研究是从1960年代到1990年代中期的不同角度和不同地点进行的。我们概述并讨论了影响女性工作研究的几个思想领域-自动化辩论；关注妇女在工作中需要的技能；劳动力市场隔离；女性健康; 和技术以及工作的重新设计–以及他们使用的研究方法。我们在本文中的主要动机是三方面的：展示以实地工作为重点的研究工作，这些研究集中在妇女工作上，如何试图在更大范围内定位妇女工作，以解决其知名度和价值。提供有关妇女工作研究的专题史学，从而证明历史观点的价值，以及将其与当代主题联系起来的手段；并提高人们对如何学习工作的各种方法学观点的认识。