Title: Women in 1900
Headings: Women in 1900
Women in 1900
MLA Citation/Reference

Content: The majority of working women were unmarried, and they were limited to roles in teaching, nursing or domestic work. For most, the expectation was that they would get married and have children. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

At the beginning of the century most waged work for women was found in trades associated with female skills or proclivities, particularly where these were also casual and low paid. Domestic service of all kinds was the single largest employer of women (40 per cent of female occupations stated in the census of 1851 in provincial cities and 50 per cent in London). The textile and clothing sectors were the second most popular. Women were also found in large numbers in pottery and metalware and in a variety of petty trades, especially in towns, such as laundry work, seamstressing cleaning and retailing. Because many sectors which employed large numbers of women were concentrated in certain regions of the country, the statistics of female labour force participation varied across the country. Nearly all female teachers taught young children in primary schools. In the final years of the 19th century, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman to qualify to be a doctor. She had to overcome many prejudices to succeed in her profession, but she became a hugely successful physician.