Explore the history of female professions of the past and how women have overcome societal norms to pursue their career ambitions with determination and resilience.
Previously, girls could not work and earn as much as men. Their responsibilities were home and raising children. However, there were also traditionally “female” professions that only emphasized gender stereotypes. Women were considered more balanced, caring, sympathetic and sensitive to beauty. Therefore, they were offered jobs where they could show their “strong sides”.
milliners
The profession appeared in France, around the 18th century, during the Baroque era. Then milliners separated from dressmakers and accessory traders and became privileged fashion traders. They specialized in making and decorating hats. For this, they usually used ribbons, ruffles, lace, feathers, flowers, and precious stones. But their work was not limited to hats.
Milliners could sew simple capes, robes, bonnets, aprons. They could remake an old dress, modernize it and decorate it. Successful milliners opened workshops and studios. They could employ various specialists: tailors, embroiderers, lace makers, fan and corset makers.
The profession of a milliner was considered prestigious. Even Queen Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI, had her own milliner, Rose Bertin. She headed the so-called Ministry of Fashion under Louis XVI. She was called the “Minister of Fashion”.
In Russia, French milliners appeared after the French Revolution of 1789. Among the first were Madame Marie-Rose Aubert-Chalmé, Madame Siclair and Madame Minangua. Their names were synonymous with modern expensive clothing brands at the time. Each had her own studio, where expensive dresses, corsets, hats and lingerie were made to order.
Gradually, fashion changed: crinolines, corsets, puffy dresses and embellishments were replaced by simpler dresses and even trousers. By the first half of the 20th century, the profession of milliners was no longer relevant. Some milliners retrained as couturiers – fashion designers who created high fashion. The most famous milliner of the early 20th century who became a fashion designer was Coco Chanel . She started with hats.
What to read about milliners
The book “Fashion shops and milliners of Moscow in the first half of the 19th century” – to learn more about famous trading houses and famous milliners of Russia. The book contains many archival documents and photographs, diaries and memoirs.
Telephone operators
nitially, teenage boys were invited to work as telephone operators. But practice showed that they were not very suitable for it: in live communication with clients, boys were often abrupt and rude. The Boston Telephone Dispatch Company was the first to hire a woman for this position: Emma Nutt came to work in September 1878. It was assumed that women could be more polite and patient than teenagers, and clients would be pleased to hear soft and calm female voices. Expectations were met: clients were happy. More and more telephone companies began to hire girls.
Young girls with good health were hired as telephone operators, because the job may seem easy only at first glance. The entire working day, that is, 8-10 hours, the girls sat on a chair in front of a special board with many holes. In 8 seconds, they had to answer a call and figure out which socket to insert the telephone cord into to connect the subscribers.
One of the sample contracts from 1903 for hiring a telephone operator states: you must always be polite, you cannot eavesdrop on subscribers’ conversations, engage in dialogue with clients, or leave your work place without handing it over to a colleague.
“The most important thing is not to engage in conversations with the client. If he is upset, you can only say: “I am very sorry that you are in trouble,” but nothing more. If you are caught talking to the client, you get a minus. But if a person is in trouble or just in a bad mood, you really want to say something to him.”
Telephone operators were gradually replaced by automatic stations, but the profession continued to exist. For example, in the USSR, telephone operators continued to connect subscribers of long-distance and international calls until the 1990s.
What to watch about telephone operators
The series “Telephone Operators” is about girls who work in one of the first telephone companies.
The Mourners
Mourners were invited to funerals to help mourn the deceased. They participated in funeral rites, expressed grief, and cried heartily. Mourners might not have known the deceased at all. At the same time, they had to show with their whole appearance how important the deceased was to those around them, and help relatives get over their grief. It was believed that a man could not (or at least should not) show strong emotions in public. Therefore, mourners were women.
The profession of a mourner is considered one of the most ancient. There is even a mention of mourners in the Old Testament:
“…then Joab sent his servants to Tekoa to bring him a wise woman from there, and said to her, ‘Please pretend to be mourning, put on mourning clothes, and do not anoint yourself with oil. Make it look as if you have been grieving for many days for the dead.’”
There were mourners in Ancient Egypt too. They usually worked in pairs and personified two goddesses: Isis and Nephthys (goddesses of day and night, life and death). They had to carry flowers and belongings of the deceased, which were left in the tomb. The height of professionalism was not just to cry, but also to tear out their hair and clothes, scratch their faces and convulse. The more terrible the suffering, the more respectable the deceased and the larger his funeral.
In Russia, mourners were called voplenitsa. Maxim Gorky in his essay “Voplenitsa” tells about a professional mourner Irina Fedosova – she was often invited not only to funerals, but also to weddings. During wedding ceremonies, voplenitsa had to mourn the girl who was leaving her parents’ home. The profession was in demand and honorable, especially in villages. Even despite the fact that the Orthodox Church did not approve of strong crying and suffering.
Midwives
Only a woman who already had children could become a midwife. In the book “Russian Folk and Everyday Medicine” of 1903, this profession is described as follows:
“Village midwives are always elderly women, mostly widows. Sometimes married women also “babyat”, but only those who have stopped giving birth themselves and who do not have their monthly cleansing. A young girl, even an elderly one, cannot be a midwife, and a childless one is a bad midwife. What kind of a granny is she if she has not tried her hand at labor herself? It is difficult to give birth with her, and the children will not always survive.”
A midwife must be of strong constitution, without physical defects, have excellent health, perfect eyesight and hearing. A midwife’s reputation had to be impeccable. When hospitals did not have maternity wards, midwives delivered babies at the mother’s home. According to the “Charter of Midwives”, they had to come to the mother at the first request of relatives. If the midwife understood that the birth would be difficult, she was obliged to call a local doctor for help.
Until the 18th century, midwives’ knowledge was based on the experience of their ancestors, local traditions, and religious customs. In Russia, the first obstetric schools were founded in the mid-18th century. They were divided into midwife institutes, midwife schools, and schools for rural midwives. Institutes taught anatomy and physiology, while schools could limit themselves to Russian, arithmetic, and obstetric practice.
Midwives were accepted into government service. They were on the staff of police stations – they were brought in to examine women who were suspected of committing crimes. Midwives also examined prostitutes. And if a woman in labor did not want to take the child, the midwife had to place it in an orphanage. In 1799, 18 midwives were officially on duty in Moscow.
Midwives were entitled to annual leave and a pension. But their status was inferior to that of doctors: they were paid less, did not receive state awards, and their opinions were often questioned, for example in court cases.
What to read about midwives in other countries
Jennifer Wharf’s book “Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s.” These are the memoirs of a midwife who worked as a midwife in London families in the mid-20th century. A frank story of the tragedies and joys of ordinary people. There is also a TV series of the same name.
Matchmakers
Matchmakers were usually businesslike, older women. In wealthy homes, they were guests of honor. For example, there was such a heroine in Ostrovsky’s play “The Marriage of Balzaminov” – Akulina Gavrilovna Krasavina.
The duties of matchmakers were described in the Domostroy back in the 15th century. They participated not only in introducing the bride and groom, but also in wedding ceremonies:
“And while the matchmaker begins to comb the prince and princess’s hair, at that time the best man would break cheese and cut loaves of bread. And when they comb the hair, unbraid the young princess’s braid and braid her braids, and dress up the young princess and, having dressed her, wrap her in a veil (and on the veil a cross is sewn), and, having wrapped her up, the best man and matchmaker bow to the icons, receive the blessing of the father and mother, and shower the young people, and after showering give them kerchiefs; and only after that the priest betroths the prince and princess.”
The matchmaker not only looked for a successful candidate and acted as a matchmaker. She also took on some “legal” issues: she made a dowry list, counted the money, and could even participate in the preparation of the marriage contract.
In the Soviet Union, matchmakers worked at their own risk until the 1980s. For “selfish mediation between a man and a woman to facilitate their entry into a love relationship,” they could fall under Article 226 of the Criminal Code.
It was only in 1979 that the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution “On advisory assistance to the population on issues of family and marriage.” Then the first “dating services” and “Over 30” clubs began to appear, which replaced matchmakers.
In the film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” Liya Akhedzhakova plays Olga Pavlovna, the director of such a club. And for some, matchmaking was not a job, but a calling. In the film “A Dormitory is Provided to the Singles” the main character is a textile factory worker by profession, and in her free time she tries to arrange the personal lives of her friends and colleagues.