Routledge - Domestic Service for Women in Early Modern London

Explore the lives of female servants through this specialized historical study from the Early Modern Englishwoman series. This book examines late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century texts to reveal how women experienced work in the growing metropolis of London. By utilizing court depositions, this work provides qualitative evidence of the role female servants played in supporting emergent capitalism. It challenges the traditional view that paid domestic work was merely a temporary phase before marriage. Instead, it examines the actual contractual foundations of their labor and the mobility these women possessed within the city. This text is a valuable resource for students and historians interested in social and cultural history. It provides a detailed look at how domestic service functioned and the specific concerns that women's movement and employment generated among the authorities of the time.