Groundbreaking labor historian Alice KesslerHarris has released a second edition of the classic overview of the history of women’s work. Th e fi rst chapter introduces the meaning of work in women’s lives from the colonial era to the present. Th e next three chapters explore themes through the 1930s. Chapter 2 asserts that “society’s expectations of women remained virtually the same down to the 1970s”: women were responsible for “maintaining households and caring for small children” (21). However, work changed as the household sizes and tasks evolved into the twentieth century. Chapter 3 takes up the subject of women working for wages, from the development of a labor force for industries to the segregation of women into lowpaying occupations in offi ces and retail. Th e fourth chapter assesses how women took up a wide variety of “social mission” work, leading to paid helping professions. Th e last of the original chapters explores the changes that occurred in all these areas from the 1920s to the pivotal 1970s when women challenged and transformed expectations in nearly every area of society. Th e fi nal chapter is the only new addition to this edition. It explores important transformations in thinking about women and work since the original publication. Th e author heralds new opportunities for women, but also laments what has been lost. For instance, “there seemed no longer to be a space for caring” because formerly unpaid tasks in the household have been turned into paid work (177). In early chapters, KesslerHarris notes how the system of slavery aff ected women’s work in the South, but most of the evidence and interpretation throughout the book focus on the Northeast, leaving the reader to extrapolate its application nationally or in the Great Plains. Th e greatest strength of this work is that the author pays particular attention to the eff ects of class, race, and ethnicity on the work women performed. In the thirtyfi ve years that have passed since its initial release, many of the theoretical concepts that made the original work groundbreaking have become widely accepted: the social construct of gender; the intersectionality of race, gender, and other identities; and, above all, the truth that women have always worked. As a result, there is little new for those in the fi eld. However, as an introduction to the subject, this book remains an excellent overview, and fortunately is now more accessible in a new edition.

中文翻译：

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阿尔伯特·比尔施塔特（Albert Bierstadt）：彼得·H·哈斯里克（Peter H. Hassrick）见证了西方的变化

开创性的劳工历史学家 Alice KesslerHarris 发布了女性工作历​​史经典概述的第二版。第一章介绍了从殖民时代到现在，工作在女性生活中的意义。接下来的三章探讨了 1930 年代的主题。第 2 章断言“社会对女性的期望一直保持到 1970 年代”：女性负责“维持家庭和照顾小孩”（21）。然而，随着家庭规模和任务的演变进入 20 世纪，工作发生了变化。第 3 章讨论了女性为工资工作的主题，从工业劳动力的发展到将女性隔离到办公室和零售业中的低薪职业。第四章评估了女性如何从事各种各样的“社会使命”工作，从而获得有偿的帮助职业。原始章节的最后一章探讨了从 1920 年代到关键的 1970 年代所有这些领域发生的变化，当时女性几乎在社会的每个领域都挑战并改变了期望。最后一章是本版唯一新增的内容。它探讨了自最初出版以来对女性和工作的思考的重要转变。作者为女性带来了新的机会，但也为失去的东西感到遗憾。例如，“似乎不再有照顾的空间”，因为以前在家庭中没有报酬的工作已经变成了有报酬的工作（177）。在前几章中，凯斯勒哈里斯指出奴隶制如何影响南方妇女的工作，但整本书中的大部分证据和解释都集中在东北地区，让读者可以推断其在全国或大平原的应用。这部作品的最大优势在于，作者特别关注阶级、种族和民族对女性所从事工作的影响。在最初发布后的三十五年里，许多使原创作品具有开创性的理论概念被广泛接受：性别的社会建构；种族、性别和其他身份的交叉性；最重要的是，女性一直在工作的事实。因此，对于该领域的人来说，几乎没有什么新鲜事。然而，作为对该主题的介绍，本书仍然是一个很好的概述，幸运的是，现在在新版本中更易于访问。