A fascinating narrative which explores the previously neglected topic of the role British women played in developing charity bazaars and in managing philanthropic agencies in the nineteenth century. Based on a wide range of literary and statistical evidence, this study investigates their motives, methods and range of activities in an area previously dominated by men. Their increased influence, Prochaska contends, gave women the administrative experience needed to enter the business and professional world, and encouraged them to extend their activities to campaigns for such legal and moral reforms as women's suffrage.