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2 - Girls as Apprentices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2021

Laura Gowing
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

A carefully adapted indenture, made for a boy and rewritten for a girl, shows the ambivalence with which young women were bound into London’s Livery Companies, or guilds. Chapter 2 uses new data to estimate for the first time the numbers of London’s female apprentices, which were considerably higher than they appear from the formal record. The complex relationship between women, work and guilds across early-modern Europe often excluded and marginalised women, whilst in some places providing a parallel route to recognition. London’s distinctive customs presented particular opportunities as well as constraints for women. Within the companies, both officially and unofficially, and alongside them, the female apprenticeship sector was growing, prompted in part by economic and social dislocations and by family ambitions. Apprenticeship for girls was coming to be a significant and familiar option through the social spectrum.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ingenious Trade
Women and Work in Seventeenth-Century London
, pp. 55 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Girls as Apprentices
  • Laura Gowing, King's College London
  • Book: Ingenious Trade
  • Online publication: 29 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108639323.003
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  • Girls as Apprentices
  • Laura Gowing, King's College London
  • Book: Ingenious Trade
  • Online publication: 29 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108639323.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Girls as Apprentices
  • Laura Gowing, King's College London
  • Book: Ingenious Trade
  • Online publication: 29 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108639323.003
Available formats
×