Race, Gender and Work: A Multi-Cultural Economic History of Women in the United States

by Teresa Amott, Julie Matthaei

With new data on women's economic status in the '90s, this classic feminist book explores the intersecting effects of race and gender on women from diverse backgrounds. "Amott and Matthaei have given us a lovingly detailed, richly textured history of American working women... Almost everyone will find a bit of her own grandmother's struggles and contributions in this impressively comprehensive book."--Barbara Ehrenreich

Genres: Feminism, History, Nonfiction, Womens Studies

441 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1991

Reviews

[Waris Ahmad Faizi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illuminating!

Amott and Matthaei deliver a powerful and wide-ranging examination of how race, gender, and class have intertwined to shape women’s labor in U.S. history. The strength of the book is in its intersectional lens: it doesn’t treat women as a monolithic group but pays careful attention to how different women—Black, Latina, Indigenous, immigrant, white—have experienced work differently across epochs. The authors combine historical data, narratives, and economic analysis to illuminate both patterns of exploitation and resilience. Overall, it’s a valuable and illuminating work for anyone interested in understanding not just how women have worked, but how work has been structured by inequalities.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was actually really rewarding and sobering to reflect on those, reading this 30 years after it came out. It's a thorough account of the complexities faced by women of various backgrounds and it shows how many things haven't changed to this day.