Female White Collar Factories? Braverman and Inter-war Victoria

Abstract

Harry Braverman argued that the application of scientific management in large American workplaces was the important tool employers used to achieve a homogeneous, deskilled, alienated and passive workforce. In particular, white collar employers promoted women's employment. Since the publication Braverman, feminization has been linked to mechanization, rationalization and homogenization. In this paper I argue that these variables are in fact separate. Disentangling these concepts through a case study of interwar Victorian shops and offices leads to a critique of Braverman. It reveals that mechanization, rationalization of work processes and feminization occurred in some small workplaces but that there was slight application of Taylorism or Welfarism. The major conclusion is that employers deliberately set out to divide their workers and unions do not seem to have objected. Segmentation rather than homogenization was the most important managerial strategy in Victorian shops and offices: employers promoted some groups of employees to ensure their loyalty to achieve productivity increases which they sought.