An entertaining survey of the trials and triumphs of women entering the professions in the UK from the Victorian era onwards, concentrating on the years up to WW2. It's quite chatty and in some cases light-hearted, but with a serious point to make that some of the prejudice and discrimination of the early years has still not left us. Recommended. ( )

From a recommendation on Instagram, I found this potted history of the first 'professional' career women to be interesting, inspiring, infuriating - bloody men! - and sorry but also slightly boring. I was expecting each 'pioneer' to be given their own chapter, like mini biographies, so that I could get to know them but the focus is on the historical prospects of women doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, and the layout is therefore rather choppy. The same women appear in each chapter, yet with the focus on wartime opportunities and post-war prejudices, balancing work and home life, how the public viewed working women, the marriage bar and even leisure time. Although I appreciate all of the well-researched stats and sources, I'm just more of a people person!

My main gripe with the subject is that the crux of the uphill battle faced by the first women professionals can be summed up in one word: men. They made the rules to benefit themselves and then actually quoted such stupid arguments like lack of precedence and protecting the livelihood of the 'breadwinner' (like women can't work to support a family) back at the intelligent and determined women who dared to challenge the status quo. 'Power was a man's birthright. Who were women - untutored, temperamentally unfit, inexperienced and over-emotional - to trespass now?' Of course women are only good for marriage and motherhood, and naturally they can't have families AND careers. ARGH!

That annoyance aside, I have nothing but admiration for the women throughout history who, for whatever reason, thought, 'Why can't I?' and promptly did. Men tried to keep them in their place - the home - by enforcing or misinterpreting archaic laws, pricing women out of education and generally belittling their female counterparts, but the Sexual Discrimination (Removal) Act in 1919 and the eventual removal of the marriage bar were on the side of the professional working woman. Not that we've quite reached a level of 'natural justice' even now.

A fitting tribute told in a personal, approachable narrative, but the author's scattergun approach is a bit repetitive at times. ( )