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Women have always had to earn a living from economic necessity rather than because of feminism!. Just the same as nowadays!.

In the early 19th century,employment prospects for women had declined to a very narrow range of options!. most working-class women worked in domestic service, or in textile mills!. They might also do sewing (piecework) which wasn't a very well-paid job!. Laundry work was another job they might, again very hard work and not very well-paid!.

The main respectable occupation for middle-class women was teaching, the public school system in America started hiring women teachers because there weren't enough men who wanted to do the job!. They were paid a lot less than male teachers, but it was a source of satisfaction to many women that they had a respectable way of earning a living!.

Some educated women were able to make a living from writing!. Some women novelists of the early 19th century were extremely popular!. Nathaniel Hawthorne bitterly refered to these women as a "a d---d mob of scribbling women" !. Hawthorne's irritation had a great deal to do with the fact that 'The Lamplighter' the novel by Maria Cummins that inspired his outburst, sold four times as many copies in the first month as 'The Scarlett Letter' sold in Hawthorne's lifetime!. The biggest success by a woman author was Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she had hoped might make her enough money to buy a new dress!. She ended up with a mansion, and an orange plantation in Florida!.

From the middle of the 19th century, employment opportunities for women expanded greatly!. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the USA to qualify as a doctor in 1850!. Nursing became a respectable occupation for women due to the efforts of Florence Nightingale!. During the Civil War, many women took over clerical jobs that had been vacated by men, and after the civil war women continued to be employed in clerical work, as a booming economy needed an army of clerical workers to process the paperwork!. A third of all government jobs were done by women by 1900!. Some women made a name for themselves in journalism, like Sarah Hale, editor of the pheonomenally popular Godey's Lady's Book, and Nellie Bly, the investigative reporter for the new York World!.

The invention of the typewriter increased employment opportunities for women!. By 1880, 40 percent of the stenographers and typists were women, and by 1900, it was three-quarters!. The infant telephone industry decided that women were natural switchboard operators as soon as it discovered that men tended to talk back to the customers!. Women were making rapid inroads into library work, where they were praised at the 1876 American Library Association meeting for being "the best of listeners!." Department stores employed large numbers of women as salesclerks, 142,000 female salesclerks were hired before the end of the century!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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in the 1800's many women worked in Textile mills!. they were replaced by cheap Ireland immigrants and headed to factories!. Lots of unsafe conditions were in store for these women!. So lots of women worked in mills, and factories!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Maids!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The duties of a wet nurse could only be performed by a woman of course!. They also worked in the mining industry!. Textile mills!. Fruit picking etc all mainly manual work!. Women were not allowed to become doctors or lawyers etc!. Generally once they had had children they were expected to look after them and there husband until the children were old enough to work, probably at the age of 7!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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