author
Virginia Penny
b. 1826
A pioneering writer on women’s work, she turned careful research into practical guidance at a time when few people were documenting women’s jobs and wages. Her books helped map the labor market open to women in 19th-century America and beyond.
1 Audiobook
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
by Virginia Penny
About the author
Born on January 18, 1826, and dying on April 4, 1913, Virginia Penny was an American social reformer, economist, and author remembered for studying women’s labor in unusual depth for her time. She is widely described as one of the first researchers to examine women’s labor markets in the United States and Europe.
Her best-known work, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman’s Work (later associated with How Women Can Make Money), drew on extensive interviews and firsthand investigation. Instead of writing in the abstract, she gathered practical details about occupations, wages, skills, and working conditions, giving women concrete information about how they might support themselves.
That mix of advocacy and evidence is what makes her stand out today. She wrote with a clear interest in women’s economic independence, and her work remains valuable as an early, data-driven record of women’s employment in the 19th century.