These are women who joined an organization that assisted working class families and progressive, for the time, ideals. To understand the perseverance and agency that they all had and later devoted into the co-operatives and Women's Guilds is overwhelming and inspiring.moreĪfter reading through the 30 page introductory letter by Virginia Woolf one gets to the memoirs of a Co-operative woman and then personal descriptions of portions of the lives of Co-operative women. These issues have always been at the core of female experience. The small details, such as the exact knowledge that all women had of all wages they had ever earned, and the matter-of-fact retelling of childbirth, infant death and sexual assault, served to make it very real. Not only is it uncommon to read about women of this class and age, but to have their own words and writing made me realise how little I could understand (and still struggle to understand) of that time, and how limited and unimpressive roles they have been given in fiction. The story of their working life – from factories to service in London homes – is unlike most things I have read. This book is a unique and insightful account from working class women during the 19th Century.
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But this book tells stories that have content far different from her position in life. Not only is it uncommon to read about wome I found this book in a pile in an antiques shop in Greenwhich, and to be fair I picked it up because I saw the name of Virginia Woolf, who wrote the introduction. I found this book in a pile in an antiques shop in Greenwhich, and to be fair I picked it up because I saw the name of Virginia Woolf, who wrote the introduction. At the end of the day, everyone has a story to tell.more The only dull account within this book is of the introductory letter by Virginia Woolf which mentions family life not once and seems to focus solely on female workers and feminist politics which mocks the ladies’s account in some way. All the stories sing the praises of the Co-operative and how each lady is involved, but it's the opening accounts of their stories that are the most interesting when the writer tells us their working livelihood as a child. We learn how difficult and precious life is, of how they scrape through, and how people cope with changing times.There are heartbreaking stories of how people coped in times of poverty and how only the innocence of the children brought aid to the whole family.
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All the stories sing the praises of the Co-operative and how each lady is involved, but it's the op The Co-operative Working Women have produced an interesting historical insight into life for early twentieth century working family lives. The Co-operative Working Women have produced an interesting historical insight into life for early twentieth century working family lives. Virginia Woolf’s essay contains her candid and searching reflections on the Guild’s 1913 Congress, the women who spoke there, and the differences between their lives and hers.more A first-hand record of working class women’s experiences in early twentieth-century England, Life as We Have Known It is a unique view of lives Virginia Woolf described as “still half hidden in profound obscurity.” The women write about growing up in poverty, going into domestic service, being a hat factory worker, or a miner’s wife concerned about the colliery baths, and A first-hand record of working class women’s experiences in early twentieth-century England, Life as We Have Known It is a unique view of lives Virginia Woolf described as “still half hidden in profound obscurity.” The women write about growing up in poverty, going into domestic service, being a hat factory worker, or a miner’s wife concerned about the colliery baths, and how they became politically active through the Women’s Co-operative Guild movement.