The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women in London (1859-late XIXth century).

"The ""Society for Promoting the Employment of Women"" founded in 1859 in London was a pioneer in the development of a vocational training for middle-class women. Organized by feminists from the Langham Place's group, the SPEW took advantage of the public debate opened on the future of unmarried women, called ""problem of surplus women"" to break with the girls traditional education and offered courses in order to make them productive. While many studies have been focused on the Langham Place Group, little of them deal with the first training of SPEW, particularly in regard to commercial classes. Mainly based upon the SPEW archives kept at Girton College, this article examines first the concrete implementation of law copying office, the commercial school and bookkeeping class. The article then attempts to assess their impact on women's access to the increasing tertiary employment. It shows that, although the number of pupils and apprentices has never been very high, classes provides concrete evidence that it was possible to train women to a profession. The intense feminist propaganda that came with the creation and development of these courses has also contributed to make acceptable the presence of women in commercial activities and public services and therefore ultimately to strengthen this presence."