Tracing the Victorian crisis over the representation of working-class women to the 1842 Parliamentary bluebook on mines, with its controversial images of women at work, "Hidden Hands" argues that the female industrial worker became even more dangerous to represent than the prostitute or the male radical because she exposed crucial contradictions between the class and gender ideologies of the period and its economic realities.
Drawing on the recent work of feminist historians, Patricia Johnson lays the groundwork for a reinterpretation of Victorian social-problem fiction that highlights...

A revealing look at the representations of women in Victorian fiction Tracing the Victorian crisis over the representation of working-class women to the 1842 Parliamentary bluebook on mines with its controversial images of women at work, Hidden Hands argues that the female industrial worker became even more dangerous to represent than the prostitute or the male radical because it exposed crucial contradictions between the class and gender ideologies of the period and its economic realities. Drawing on the recent work of feminist historians, Patricia Johnson lays the groundwork for a rein...