The London trade in the printing and binding of books: An experience in exclusion, dilution and de-skilling for women workers

Abstract

The role of women in the bookbinding and printing trades has always been significant in that they provided a variety of essential functions. The early days of printing saw the continuation of business rights and assets through marriage to the widows and daughters (often technically skilled) of printers whose livelihoods were controlled by the powerful Stationers' Company. By the nineteenth century when the industrial revolution slowly had its effect on the trades, women performed a vital role in the bookbinding process as folders and sewers. But they had always been considered marginal within the trades and this too persisted into the nineteenth century when mechanisation and the growth of unions provided new arenas for industrial antagonism between male and female workers. By the end of this period women were established in low paid, low status work in spite of their historic inclusion as skilled workers in certain sectors. Even in these exceptional trades the more common patterns in the evolution of women's work had prevailed.