Transcript Top Ten Jobs

Top Ten Jobs for Girls
If you were living in Darebin in
1900 what would you do for a job?
Click each page to see the top ten
jobs for women and girls.
Home Duties
• ‘Home duties’ was the
old way of saying you
were a wife, a mother,
or a daughter who lived
at home to cook, clean
and look after children
in the family. Most
women in 1900 listed
their job as ‘home
duties.’
Teacher
• Teaching was a way for
an educated single
woman to earn money
before she got married.
Some did not marry and
made teaching their life
long career. It was even
okay for a married
woman to work as a
music teacher and earn
more money for the
family.
Typist
• A typist or telephonist
in an office was a
popular job for
women. The
telephone exchange
looked like a panel of
holes and chords.
The operator
connected these to
put calls through to
the right extension.
Nurse
• World War I made
nursing a popular
choice for young
women. It gave them
lots of opportunities to
travel, live and work
independently and to
have a very serious
career with training
and a qualification.
Shopkeepers
• Many wives
supported their
husbands running the
family shop,
particularly grocery,
confectionary (sweet)
shops and coffee
houses (cafes). They
would continue the
business as a widow
if their husband died.
Publicans
• Many of Darebin’s
public hotels (pubs)
were run by women.
In the past public
hotels offered guest
rooms for overnight
visitors as well as a
bar where people
could eat a meal and
have a drink.
Nuns
• A young woman from
a Catholic family
could join a convent
as a nun . This often
appealed to girls who
liked to teach, nurse
and look after people.
The Little Sisters of
the Poor ran a
nursing home on St
Georges Road.
Laundress, Charwoman or Servant
• These were jobs for the
less educated women
and often widows who
needed to earn money
to support their family.
No qualification was
needed to wash clothes
and clean other
people’s houses.
The Clothing Trade
• An artistic girl could
go into the clothing
trade as a factory
machinist. With more
experience she could
be a milliner making
hats, a dressmaker,
or a tailoress sewing
elegant clothes for
rich people.
Mayor
• If you were extremely
determined you could
stand for politics and be
elected to the Council but
this was very rare. Millie
Peacock was the first
female elected to the
Victorian Lower House in
1933. The first female
Mayor of Preston was
Helen Davis in 1985. We
have lots of women on
the Council now and
holding the office of
mayor.
The Best Job of All?
A Lady of Good Character
• A young lady with an education
and rich parents had the best job
of all. She did not need to earn
a living. She had time to help
charities and campaign for social
justice. These ladies joined the
Suffragettes fighting for women’s
rights and earning Victorian
women the vote in 1903. This
was a very important job for the
women of today.