Introduction

If women were thought to have careers at all, they used to be thought to have a career only, or rather merely, as mothers. The vast increase in women’s employment over the post-Second World War period has led to a recognition that women might have employment careers. The tendency to think that a woman’s main role is as a mother, working at domestic tasks has meant that very few women were considered to have employment careers as such. The term ‘career woman’ was used to describe these few, who were thought mainly to be single and in professional occupations or possibly some sort of freak. These conceptualisations of women’s employment histories have come under attack from two sources; women can be seen to be spending more of their lives in employment; the notion of a career which underlies the earlier views of employment histories has also been heavily criticised since it is thought to be unduly restrictive as a description of both women’s and men’s experiences. The tendency to view domestic tasks as inferior to employment has also been challenged and the counter-proposal which suggests we should see unwaged work as a fully-fledged occupation, has been advocated.