Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

Her research interest lies in British and European women’s history, particularly issues of work and education in the eighteenth century, and women’s role in urban development. She is also interested in the development of women’s cultural identity in Europe from about 1700. Her recent research involves investigation of the relationship between the development of European towns over time and the inflection of that development when viewed through the lens of gender. She is Leader of the Research Network, Gender and the European Town, Early Modern to Modern, 2007–.  publishing published Gender in the European Town, Ancien to the Modern, Routledge, 2023. She has a long-term interest  in working girls in the eighteenth century: Gradually a historical girlhood has developed bringing girls into focus in their own right, yet important lacunae persist. Her current research complements existing studies by examining the significance of girlhood in the lives of girls in the eighteenth century. It takes a primary focus on preparation for adulthood, linking it to their futures as working women, and it discusses girls’ alternatives exploring the spaces they inhabited during the pivotal period of ‘upbringing’. Dealing primarily with the experiences of British girls, it makes occasional references to the wider European scene. She was author of A History of European Work and continues to explore variations on that theme, working on a global history of women’s work and on women in industry between 1700 and 1914.

Recent Publications

Gender in the European Town, Ancien to the Modern, Routledge, 2023

Routledge History of Loneliness, with Katie Barclay and Elaine Chalus, Routledge February 2023.

A Cultural History of Work, with Anne Montenach, eds, 6 volumes, Bloomsbury, 2018. Winner of American Society of Publishers, Excellence Award, Multivolume Reference/Humanities, 2020.

Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience, general editor, Routledge, 2017.

Catastrophe, Gender and Urban Experience in Europe, 1648-1920, with Hannu Salmi, Routledge 2017.

Luxury and Gender in European Towns, c.1700–1914, with Anne Montenach and Marjo Kaartinen, eds, Routledge, 2014.

Women in European Culture and Society, A Sourcebook. Routledge, 2013.

Women in Eighteenth-century Scotland, editor with Katie Barclay. Ashgate, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4094-5046-7.

Female Agency in the Urban Economy, Gender in European Towns, 1640-1830, editor with Anne Montenach. Routledge, 2013.

Women in European Culture and Society, Gender, Skill and Identity from 1700. Routledge, 2011 (ISBN 0-415-21307-X).

‘Voices from Lost Homelands: Loss, Longing and Loneliness’ In The Routledge History of Loneliness, ed. Katie Barclay, Elaine Chalus and Deborah Simonton. Routledge, February 2023.

‘Gender, Power and Society in Western Europe, 1750-1914,’ in A Companion to Global Gender History, Teresa Meade and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, eds. Wiley, 2020, pp. 461-478. Print ISBN: 9781119535805.

‘”For the gentlemen of the town to walk on by way of exchange”: Gender, Space and Commerce in the Eighteenth-Century Town’, in Elaine Chalus and Marjo Kaartinen, eds, Gendering Spaces in European Towns, 1500-1914, Routledge, 2019

‘All the days of their lives’: the business of life’, Women in Business Families, eds Jarna Heinonen and Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen, Routledge, 2018.

‘Community of Goods, Coverture and Capability in Britain: Scotland v. England’, Gender, Law and Wellbeing in Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, eds. Anna Bellavitis and Beatrice Zucca. Routledge 2018.

‘‘‘Sister to the tailor’: Guilds, gender and the needle trades in eighteenth-century Europe’, Early Professional Women in Northern Europe, c. 1650 to the 1850s. Editors Johanna Ilmakunnas, Marjatta Rahikainen and Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017, 135-58.

‘Toleration, Liberty and Privileges: gender and commerce in eighteenth-century European towns’, in Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience, 33-46, ed. Deborah Simonton, Routledge, 2017.

‘Gender and the Urban Experience: Introduction’, in Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience, 1-10, ed. Deborah Simonton, Routledge, 2017.

‘Surviving the Siege: Catastrophe, Gender and Memory in La Rochelle’, in Catastrophe, Gender and Urban Experience in Europe, 1648-1920, Deborah Simonton and Hannu Salmi, eds, Routledge 2017.

‘”…to merit the countenance of the Magistrates”: Gender and civic identity in eighteenth-century Aberdeen’, in Nina Koefoed, Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren and Krista Cowman, eds, Gender in Urban Europe: Sites of Political Activity and Citizenship 1750-1900, Routledge, 2014.

‘Milliners and Marchandes de Modes: Gender, Skill and Creativity in the workplace’, in Simonton, Kaartinen and Montenach, eds, Luxury and Gender, c. 1700-1914, Routledge 2014.

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Britain and Europe

Expertise by Geography

England, France, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Expertise by Chronology

18th century, 19th century, 20th century

Expertise by Topic

Children & Youth, Gender, Labor, Urban History, Women