The Politics of Work is concerned with the complex relationship between economic and technological change, the nature of sexual division in the workforce, and the role of union, employer and state activists. It carefully traces the impact of all of these factors on wage levels for men and women. The treatment of these themes touches on wide historical issues, as we follow the fortunes of Victorian manufacturing and consider the political strategies of the trade unions of the time and the state's response to them. The study is also an important piece of social history, evoking the nature of work for many Australians of the period.