Women's Work

By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber 

Paperback

Published: First published in 1995

ISBN: 0393313484

Women's Work, The First 20,000 Years, Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times. 

Women were the full force of the first clothing created from spun fibres, up until the Industrial Revolution this enormous economic system primarily belonged to women. 

Using new and old archeological techniques, some of which Barber helped to fashion, she discovers the vital role women played in pre-industrial societies. The history of early clothes have virtually been omitted from the world today due to the perishability of what was produced. Elizabeth demonstrates that women were a powerful economic force in the ancient world, with their own industry: fabric.