A series of six essays examines the economic circumstances of educated middle-class women, assessing how access to higher education and professional training intersects with limited employment opportunities, social expectations about marriage, and household expenditure. The author analyses the costs and rewards of pursuing efficiency, questions age limits imposed on women's work, critiques prevailing economic ideals, and surveys half a century of change in women's material prospects. Combining statistical observation with social commentary, the essays argue that structural barriers and cultural assumptions shape whether education translates into secure or dignified livelihoods for women of the middle classes.