Woven Thread is a story of four women's transition from girlhood to woman hood during second half of the nineteenth century. Clara is determined that she will not follow her sisters into service and persuades her parents to allow her to become a pupil teacher. The sudden death of her father means an end to her ambitions. Though forced through necessity to become a domestic service Clara continues to rebel against convention. As a mother she projects her own ambitions onto first her daughter, then her grand-daughter. Through tellig the story of these three women the novel examines issues which concern us still today, namely education, the glass ceiling, mental health, same sex attraction and overriding financial constraints faced by women.