Jill of all trades and mistress of none

Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none English Noun Jills of all trades and mistresses of none en Jill of all trades, mistress of none. en [Marie von Bothmer] German Home Life.—By a Lady.—I. Servants. Fraser’s Magazine XI LXI January 1875 41 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.30871/page/n49/mode/1up 2 Every mistress of a household will understand my meaning when it is explained, that a young girl, having served in four or five different houses, will have done so in a different capacity in each. She will have been nursemaid, maid of all work, cook and housemaid, sewing maid, and consequently a Jill of all trades and mistress of none. en German Home Life. (Longmans & Co.) The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama 2547 19 August 1876 231 https://archive.org/details/sim_athenaeum-uk_1876-08-19_2547/page/231/mode/1up 1 The German servant is, indeed, hopelessly uncouth, unhandy, and doggedly self-satisfied, Jill of all trades and mistress of none, and neat-handed Phillises are unknown in the scheme of Teuton creation. en the “British Weekly” commissioners [Margaret Harkness] Sempstresses—West End Tailoresses Toilers in London; or, Inquiries Concerning Female Labour in the Metropolis. Being the Second Part of “Tempted London.” London Hodder and Stoughton,27, Paternoster Row 1889 236 https://archive.org/details/toilersinlondono00brituoft/page/236/mode/1up WHAT is a sempstress? So far as we can make out, she is Jill of all trades and mistress of none. Dressmakers abuse her for taking work out of their hands, and upholsteresses say that she intrudes where she is not wanted. We shall class her here as the maker of underclothing; not only as an unskilled hand in her own home, but as a skilled machinist working for her daily bread in metropolitan factories. en Four Frenchwomen w:The Morning Post 37,067 London 3 April 1891 3 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/409955026/ 2 It was to the last class that [Stéphanie Félicité,] Madame [de Genlis] belongs, and perhaps her boast of her knowledge of half-a-dozen languages, and her proficiency on no fewer than nine instruments, among them what Victor Hugo called “the bug-pipes,” and of her acquaintance with field labour and gardening, may simply mean that she was Jill of all trades and mistress of none; en Lewiston Evening Journal 5 p. m. Lewiston, Me. 15 June 1898 4 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/827936370/ 2 That New York skirt dancer arrested for non-support of his family, who is a female impersonator and can paint, teach music, and do beautiful embroidery seems to be a Jill of all trades and mistress of none. en Marguerite Mooers Marshall Mrs. F. H. Dike Efficiency in Patriotism Puts Women on Firm Basis For Service to Country: Women’s Section of Navy League Starts a School to Teach It w:The Evening World New York, N.Y. The Press Publishing Co. 1 June 1917 7 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/78660082/ 1 This is no time for dabsters, for half-trained, under-equipped girls and women. So much of the education girls receive tends to make them Jills of all trades and mistresses of none. en Ella May Turner Blanche A. Wheatley Stories and Verse of West Virginia Hagerstown, Md. The Diamond Binding & Printing Co. 1923 section “Period of the Development of the State under the New Constitution (1872-1922)” 343 https://archive.org/details/storiesverseofwe00turn/page/343/mode/1up Mrs. [Blanche A.] Wheatley gives the following characteristic account of herself: I have a public school education supplemented by home study; am an inveterate reader, a verse-writer and newspaper contributor; a pen-and-ink-artist of some ability, and a real homebody skilled in every domestic art, including flower culture. I am, in fact, a ‘Jill-of-all-trades-and-mistress-of-none.’ en E. M. Pooley Side-Bar Remarks w:El Paso Herald-Post LXI 62 El Paso, Tex. 13 March 1941 4 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/797736664/ 1 Philosopher [L. A.] Woods would spread the learning thin and make Jills of all trades and mistresses of none out of our school teachers. en Frederick E[screet] Smith The Persuaders! book three London Pan Books Ltd 1973 16 https://archive.org/details/persuaders0000smit_u5a2/page/16/mode/1up 0 330 23421 8 ‘Oh, that. I sketch, I do a little clay modelling, engraving, lithography . . . I’m a Jill of all trades and mistress of none.’ en Alice Dwyer-Joyce The Strolling Players New York, N.Y. St. Martin’s Press; London: Robert Hale & Company 1975 62 https://archive.org/details/strollingplayers0000dwye/page/n65/mode/1up 0 7091 4351 6 “Hermione Kiddle,” she said, when we had finished. “I belong to the Players. I’m wardrobe mistress, and secretary and treasurer and a lot of other things besides. Jill of all trades and mistress of none. That’s Hermione Kiddle.” en Dorothy Hewett talking with Drusilla Modjeska w:Mary Chamberlain Writing Lives: Conversations Between Women Writers w:Virago Press 1988 95–96 https://archive.org/details/writinglivesconv0000unse/page/96/mode/1up 0-86068-708-2 D[orothy].H[ewett]. So I began to think, okay if I’m going to be writing all these things, how am I going to do it? I write short stories, I write poetry. I’ve written a novel and I want to write drama, I write articles. I’m going to end up a jill of all trades and mistress of none. en Jill Bond Dinner’s in the Freezer! — More Mary and Less Martha 3rd Lake Hamilton, Fla. Reed Bond Books 1993 !1 - 7 https://archive.org/details/dinnersinfreezer0000bond_w7q3/page/n16/mode/1up 0-9631992-4-2 It’s a standing joke in my family about all my many majors. Not that I’m fickle, but because I enjoyed so many pursuits, I couldn’t decide. Yet none was inclusive of all my interests. I’m a “Jill of all trades,” and a mistress of none. en Sølvi Sogner Historical Features of Women’s Position in Society Nora Federici; Karen Oppenheim Mason; Sølvi Sogner Women’s Position and Demographic Change Oxford Clarendon Press 1993 part II (Women’s Position as an Outcome of Demographic Change) 253 https://archive.org/details/womenspositionde0000unse/page/253/mode/1up 0-19-828792-5 It is very illuminating that, unless an artisan’s daughter married a man in the trade that was carried on in her parental home, and of which she therefore had some knowledge, she would not be able to continue in this trade—but would be expected to adjust to her husband’s trade, and thus change her work-pattern. To be flexible in this way—jills of all trades and mistresses of none—may have had negative consequences on women’s work-performance. en Ontario Provincial Council International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, Local 1494 Official Report of Debates (Hansard) the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 17 November 1998 G-315–G-316 https://archive.org/details/31761114668940/page/316/mode/1up 1 1180-5218 Mr Kevin Elliott: By focusing on learning skill sets and moving away from trade qualification, Bill 55 risks flooding the construction marketplace with individuals who have limited skill set knowledge without fully appreciating all the facets of a particular trade; in short, Jacks and Jills of all trades and masters and mistresses of none. en Janet Haworth Women in radio news: making a difference? Caroline Mitchell Women and Radio: Airing Differences London; New York, N.Y. w:Routledge 2000 part 3 (Women working in radio), chapter section “New technology” 253 https://archive.org/details/womenradioairing0000unse/page/253/mode/1up 0-415-22071-8 Multi-skilling however can also have the negative effect of de-skilling the broadcast journalist, forcing her to compromise journalistic quality for the sake of technical excellence. Desktopping liberates women in that it abolishes the old studio-based, purely technical jobs usually held by men with engineering qualifications. Yet desktopping is a form of disempowerment for both men and women, since the journalist is forced to become a Jack (or Jill) of all trades and mistress of none, so her work may appear mediocre. en Lynda Crane Origins: Historical and Cultural Mental Retardation: A Community Integration Approach Wadsworth/Thomson Learning 2001 part I (Understanding Mental Retardation), chapter section “Social Control and “Cleansing”” 54 https://archive.org/details/mentalretardatio0000cran/page/54/mode/1up 0-534-33923-9 The lecture detailed typical problems with “girls” in the institution: As we look over our records and talk with the girls we learn that the majority of them have held varieties of jobs. As a result when they reach us they are veritable Jills of all trades and mistresses of none. en w:Jo Bailey Wells I Was Glad when They Said Unto Me, ‘We Will Go Into the House of the Lord’ Christina Rees Voices of this Calling: Experiences of the First Generation of Women Priests Norwich Canterbury Press 2002 202 https://archive.org/details/voicesofthiscall0000unse/page/202/mode/1up 1-85311-412-X I contemplated counselling; I thought of social work; I considered teaching. The ordained ministry has given me plenty of opportunity to explore all of these. As a college chaplain I much enjoyed being a Jill of all trades and mistress of none. en Oonagh Berry Tuesday, 7 p.m. Oonagh Berry; w:Helen Levine Between Friends: A Year in Letters w:Second Story Press 23 July 2002 2005, republished 2006 276 https://archive.org/details/betweenfriendsye00berr/page/276/mode/1up 1-897187-01-7 I think I come across so scattered; maybe not scattered, but certainly a “Jill of all trades and mistress of none.” en Nick Curtis Meera’s Bombay dream w:Evening Standard 4 March 2004 45 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/725767447/ “The problem with doing lots of things is that you are looked on as a Jill of all trades and a mistress of none,” she [Meera Syal] says. en w:Boze Hadleigh Slugfests! Celebrity Diss & Tell: Stars Talk About Each Other Kansas City, Mo. w:Andrews McMeel Publishing 2005 265 https://archive.org/details/celebritydisstel0000unse/page/265/mode/1up 978-0-7407-5473-9 I wonder what Joan [Rivers] puts down where it says “Occupation.” She’s tried everything but streetwalking, I assume. I guess she could put down “Jill of all trades, and mistress of none.” —MICK JAGGER en Marjorie Inkster Introduction Bow and Arrow War: From FANY to Radar in World War II Oxford ISIS 2005 2008 xi https://archive.org/details/bowarrowwarfromf0000inks/page/n12/mode/1up 978-0-7531-9498-0 I was later to have a University life, a Chaplaincy life, a Psychotherapy life, a Church Ministry and a long Social Services life. One might say “Jill of all trades and mistress of none”. en w:Susan Napier 3 Just Once w:Mills & Boon 2007 47 https://archive.org/details/justonce0000napi/page/47/mode/1up 978 0 263 85380 3 ‘What makes you think you’re not intelligent?’ ‘Not unintelligent…’ ‘Just…um…intellectually unfocused.’ ‘I suppose I tend to be a Jill of all trades and mistress of none,’ she finished lightly. en Highwood Senior Center news The River Press year 134 25 Fort Benton, Mont. 9 April 2014 5 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/952955559/ [Gretchen] Wilson received her first sheep as a birthday gift from her husband about 25 years ago and she has gradually learned how to spin, weave and make felt from the wool. “I say I’m a Jill of all trades and a mistress of none,” she said.