This book draws upon substantial archival research in Rouen, Lyon, and Paris to show that while the vast majority of working women in eighteenth-century France labored at unskilled, low-paying jobs, it was not at all unusual for women to be actively engaged in economic activities as workers, managers, and merchants.

Daryl M. Hafter is Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University. She is the editor of European Women and Preindustrial Craft (1995).