Women's occupations in the 1790's?

[Miss Cecily]

I'm trying to start a regency romance novel set in about 1796. I've been trying to research what women's jobs might have been other than teachers, governesses or simply being at home raising children. I'm wanting to make my heroine a bookseller or librarian but I'm not sure if that was a job a woman typically did at that time. Does anyone know? Is there any good website or book I could read about it?

[Geona]

Miss Cecily, could you define what social class your heroine belongs to, as class would have a strong influence on occupation?

If your heroine was from the lower class, she would most likely work as a servant or in farming.

If she was middle class, she can be a business woman. There was e.g. in the 18th century, Eleanor Coade (1733– 1821), a British business woman. She manufactured Neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments made of Lithodipyra (so called "Coade stone"). She actually did run the business.

[Geona]

Dear Miss Cecily,
I had a quick read through the chapter "Gender and Family" in "The Enlighted Economy" by Joel Mokyr.

It states, that women often worked in the trade of their families or husbands.

So, if your heroine's father runs a book shops, everything should be fine, don't you think?

[Miss Cecily]

Thank you, Geona! My character will be middle class. Those are some wonderful examples you have mentioned. And thank you for the additional information. I think her father will run a book shop. It should work out well!