Once a nation of shopkeepers, Britain is now a land of dedicated shoppers. We spend more time shopping than on any other activity apart from work: a grand total of eight years of our lives is spent shopping. It’s perhaps surprising then that the role of the “shopgirl” – a word coined in the 1820s – has until now been overlooked by historians. Written to accompany a BBC TV series, this very readable and well-researched social history shows how “the girling of shopwork” began in the 1860s. Women often received half what male assistants were paid and worked 80 to 100 hours a week, 51 weeks a year. Many lived on the premises: one resigned when she found out she would have to share three rooms with 23 other shopgirls. Despite the hours of “standing and smiling and serving”, the life of a shopgirl was preferable (and better paid) to that of a servant. Shopwork was a “proper profession, a job with status”, and by the 20th century these “independent, earning, attractively dressed young women” had become “agents of change”, helping to transform the workplace and society. A fascinating history, from the first department stores to the boutiques of the swinging 60s.
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