What does workingwomen mean?
Workingwomen is the plural of workingwoman and refers collectively to women who are employed or otherwise engaged in regular paid work. In everyday use, the expression usually means women with jobs outside the home, although its literal wording can also cover women doing unpaid farm, family, or other productive labor. It is most often neutral and factual, but historically it has carried an important social emphasis: by identifying women through their economic activity, it challenged assumptions that women belonged primarily in domestic roles. That association also appears in contemporary debates about workplace equality, caregiving, and income. Modern usage varies in spelling. The closed compound workingwomen is established, while the two-word form working women is widely used and may be more familiar to speakers. For singular reference, workingwoman is possible, but plural forms are much more frequent. Overall, the word is useful when a speaker or writer wants to discuss women as workers while avoiding the narrower and sometimes outdated label housewife.
nounWomen who work, especially women who have paid employment. The term may also refer more broadly to women engaged in regular productive work.
- Women who have jobs or are otherwise engaged in regular paid work, considered collectively.
"Many workingwomen in the city rely on affordable public transport."
"Many workingwomen in the city rely on affordable public transport."
"The exhibition celebrates workingwomen whose contributions to science were once overlooked."
This is the standard plural of workingwoman and normally takes plural agreement, although it can be treated as a collective noun when referring to women as a category.
"Thousands of workingwomen participated in the campaign for equal pay."
One compound can express a major social change: women are no longer defined by what they do at home, but by the work they do in the world.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of workingwomen
Workingwomen is a modern English compound formed from working and women, with the two elements regularly stressed as separate units. Both components ultimately descend from Old English: work comes from Old English werc, while woman comes from Old English wimman, whose plural developed into the modern form women. The compound pattern produced the established plural workingwomen and the less frequent singular workingwoman.
Related word forms
How workingwomen is actually used
Generally neutral and factual, though the expression historically carried an emphasis on women's economic independence and was often contrasted with homemakers. It normally takes plural agreement, although it can be treated as a collective noun when referring to women as a category.
Easily confused with workingwomen
Working women is the open two-word spelling of the same plural expression and is widely used, while workingwomen is the established closed compound spelling.
Workingwoman is the singular form, whereas workingwomen is the standard plural.