This study examines the role of gender in the early modern public sphere by bringing together two fields -:women's history and parish studies. For decades, historians debated the alleged withdrawal of middling 18th century women from the market and the workshop to the parlour. Instead, this study highlights women's work, with the aid of a case study. At the same time, it emphasises middling men's increasing role in local government, especially from the early 18th century - from which women were excluded. The work explains how this increase resulted from changing legislation and mounting pressures on local government, connected to the administration of the 'poor laws'. The extent of this male work is also demonstrated through a case study, which suggests that as middling men's public life became more onerous, it was supported by female and household labour.
Naomi Tadmor is Professor of History at Lancaster University. Her publications include The Practice and Representation of Reading in England (Cambridge, 1996), (co-edited); Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England: Household, Kinship, and Patronage (Cambridge, 2001); The Social Universe of the English Bible: Scripture, Society and Culture in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2010).