Gender and the Politics of Office Work in the Netherlands, 1860-1940

This case-study of a fast-growing segment of the labor market examines the meaning of office work for women: their prolonged struggle to be admitted to the unions, the role of the Schoevers Institute - the Dutch Katharine Gibbs School - in shaping the occupation of secretary, the conservative backlash against female office workers between the two world wars, and finally, the way these women look back on their time in the office, including their experiences of sexual harassment."The male-female politics of office employment as revealed by Francisca de Haan's study are fascinating and shed significant light on business and labor practices and educational politics as well as on the Dutch feminist movement itself. In addition to her extensive detective work in the historical sources, de Haan has availed herself of the best in international scholarship to build the theoretical foundation on which the book rests. Her study will be a welcome addition to the English-language literature on Europe, especially as Dutch women's history is undeservedly all too little known outside the Netherlands." - Karen Offen, The Institute for Research on Women en Gender, Stanford University

The Rise of Caring Power

This original study discusses the role of women in developing and dispersing caring power and, vice-versa, the role of caring power in constituting 'women' as modern social subjects, processes which began around 1800. Based on the historian-/philosopher Foucault's concept of pastoral power, "caring power" also takes into account the vital role played by gender. Both humanitarian and religious motives fostered the ideal of serving the well-being of individual 'others' and thereby the interest of society as a whole.With the rise of caring power, this book argues, women began to feel responsible for 'those of their own sex' and to organize themselves in all-female organizations. In the process they carved out new gender identities for themselves and the women in their care.The authors illustrate this profound historical change with the work of the reformers Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) and Josephine Butler (1828-1906) and trace their impact in Britain and the Netherlands