Women's Talk: A Social History of Gossip

Women's talk has traditionally been denigrated as an inferior form of conversation, lacking the significance of men's words. In fact, as this study shows, gossip played a central role in working class women's lives, performing a variety of functions, particularly those associated with the sharing and support networks which are the essence of community and which underpinned life in poor districts. Based entirely on contemporary sources, this is a study of a little-known and widely misunderstood part of women's history.