The last 20 years have seen an increased interest from academics and practitioners alike in analysing and understanding women's participation in the labour force. In particular there has been an interest in the position of women in management and those women in male-dominated professions. The experiences of women employed in semi-skilled and unskilled occupations where women form the majority of the workforce has largely been a neglected area in terms of research, although there have been some significant studies considering the experiences of women working in factories, supermarkets, and a number of studies which have looked at the work of female office workers, in particular secretaries. Given the fact that the majority of economically active women are concentrated in these areas it is interesting that the occupational lives of thousands of women are both under-investigated and under-reported.