The process of occupational sex-typing: the feminization of clerical labor in Great Britain, 1870-1936.

The Process of Occupational Sex-Typing: The Feminization of Clerical Labor in Great Britain, 1870-1936. By Samuel Cohn. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 1986. viii + 278 pp. Tables, appendixes, references, and index. $34.95.

In The Process of Occupational Sex-Typing: The Feminization of Clerical Labor in Great Britain, Samuel Cohn attempts to construct a theory that will explain why certain jobs become all or predominantly female while others resist feminization. Cohn, a sociologist, undertakes case studies of two firms, the British General Post Office and the Great Western Railway, chosen, in part, because of their different policies toward the employment of female clerks. The General Post Office hired women as early as 1870 and by the First World War employed women in 40 percent of its clerical positions. The Great Western Railway, on the other hand, did not …