¡Descarga Gender Roles & Economic Influence in Pre-Industrial Society: Women's Status & Contribution y más Diapositivas en PDF de Cultura Inglesa solo en Docsity! Gender History Through an Economic Lens 1: Pre-Industrial and Early Industrial Society Married Women • “The position of the married woman resulted from the doctrine that her legal personality merged during marriage in that of her husband.” (J. H. Baker) • A wife was to her husband as a vassal was to a lord or baron. Gender and Historiography: Was this a Golden Age of Female Work? • Did the emergence of class society bring with it the separate spheres of the Victorian period? • Did this only change the lives of middle class women? • Other than farm labour, what sort of work did women do? • If women were key to domestic industries, but also did childcare and household work, what did men do? Women and Agriculture • Paid field work (HUGE gender gap: over 50%) • Livestock • Chickens (typically near the cottage) • Milkmaids (again, in a building near the cottage) • It’s less clear how often women worked as shepherds and cowherds. • “it is not clear that a woman’s industrial work was any more agreeable when directed by a husban, rather than a formal employer” (Amanda Vickery, 1993) Women apprentices One measure of sexism is society’s investment in human capital—long periods of training. • No women’s guilds (as in France). • Two kinds of apprenticeships: parish apprenticeships (cf Oliver Twist) and private apprenticships (to a master). • In which of the following trades do we find women apprentices? • Carpenters • Wheelwrights • Clockmakers. • Goldsmiths. • Gilders. • Engravers. • Wig makers. • Hairdressers. • Surgeons. • Dentists. • Blacksmiths. • Shoe-makers. • Weavers. • Gold wire drawers. • Silver wire drawers.
Table 6.2. Southampton
apprenticeship, 1609-1708
Male Female
Other occupations
Occupations Male Female Occupations
Agricultural Other occupations (cont'd)
Husbandry 2 5 Carpenter 7 2
Gardener 1 = Painter 2 =
coa papi E]
Butcher 5 1 Full 2
Baker 3 1 a =
Currier 2 —
Brewer 2 —
1 Ropemaker 8 0
nnholder 2 -
Victualler 3 3 Ani = !
Fi Tobacco pipe 4 =
isherman 7 — muker
Vintner 2 = Wine cooper 2 _
Clothing Blockmaker 4 -
Tailor 26 4 Tanner 2 —
Glover 5 2 Farrier — 1
Weaver 8 2 Pointmaker 1 o
Woolcomber 14 3 Castermaker 1 —
Sergeweaver/ 31 9 Sawyer 1 —
sayweaver Ironmonger = 1
Cordwainer 32 4 Labourer 1 4
Feltmaker 2 1 Widow =- 10
Clothier 13 1 Housewifery — 5
Cloth worker 5 É
Total (367) 283 84
Cobbler/ 9 1 % of total 771 2,9
translator AS
Kersiweaver 1 — o
Button maker 1 2
Silk weaver 9 -
Sempstress = 1
Other occupations
Joymer 5
Blacksmith 7
1
8
Turner
Cooper
Goldsmith =
Mariner 5
Freemason 5
Barber 1
Musician 3
Basket maker 3
Shipwright 5
Hellyer, 12
plumber
Shearman —
|rnre=na]]|=-."w] ] 92
Mean Male Female
Length of 10.1 9.4
apprenticeship — (s=2.40)(5 => 2.42)
Sample no. 42 43
Age at end 2.0 194
of term (s = 1.99)(s = 2.22)
Sample no. 56 39
Premium £1.78 £1.96
(s = 1.29(s = 1.63;
Sample no. 63 41
(1609-37)
And after apprenticeship? • “....the majority of women in eighteenth-century Britain were part of an “economic partnership” in which the wife did not expect to be kept by her husband but contributed to the surpluis which allowed them to to purchase more appelaing goods and services in the market.” (Mokyr 2009) • More spending on women’s goods, less on beer. As the population and the economy grew, women found new opportunities... ....in domestic service. How about botiguers and botigueres? It helps that we have eighteenth- century yellow pages (this one, published by Elizabeth Raffald). Women in Trades in Manchester,
Women Gender Percent
1 Midwife
Women
Shopkeepers
la
A
1788
er, cloth
Demonstrably, when gentlemen dabbled in the marriage market
they hoped to procure a bride as prudent and economical as she was
charming and genteel. The manufacturer Edward Parker had second
thoughts about his favoured damsel, a Miss Holt, whom he had
visited three times at home and gallanted to a play, when he
discovered her extravagance. By contrast, the self-made William
Gossip found in his bride an unpaid housekeeper as dutiful and
continent as any paragon of Protestant prescription: “for sure no
woman of your fortune was ever less expensive.'2 A clear
appreciation of female management skills is apparent in a host of
masculine manuscripts. When John Parker pleaded with his
unmarried daughter to return from one of her jaunts in 1749, his
increasing reliance on her superior administrative powers was made
explicit:
Dr Child I shall be glad of yr Company at home for T know not how we
goe on; for Peggy €£ Tom doe nothing but play the Foole togeather from
morning to night €: she is very heedless, € [what] with workmen 8:
serv[ants] this house as 1 now grow into years is quite above my hand to
manage therefore [should] be glad if I could draw myself into a
narrow[er] compass €: spend my remaining days in quiet éx ease ...
Similarly, when Anne Stanhope was away at her sister's, her husband
Walter Stanhope grew impatient for her return, pleading his
helplessness: “ye house does not look right without you €: 1 am no
way qualified for housekeeping.* In fact, a strict division of authority
was eagerly embraced by most genteel husbands. Witness William
Ramsden in 1770, complaining of overwork during his wife's lying
in: T wish the next Week over that T may resign the Keys of my
Office, for indeed most heartily am 1 tired of being both Mistress €:
Master.” Indeed, cuckolded husbands who brought the common law
action “criminal conversation” against their wives' lovers, often
claimed additional financial compensation for the loss of their house
manager.£
As the mistress of a household, the genteel bride tasted of
administrative power and exuded quasi-professional pride. While
betrothed in the summer of 1751, Miss Elizabeth Parker of
Browsholme anticipated her household responsibilities with officious
excitement. Her letters were peppered with questions about
These new spaces were noted for theatricality.
PHE SUPPLEMENTAL MAGAZINE
So why did women’s labour force participation decline? 1. Enclosure
To Humbleton
T—Lelley Dale
(extra-parochial)
To Sproatley
To Bilton
Site of
AN windmill
To Elstronwick
To
Ñ= Burton Pldsea
Y
Lelley
(detached)
To Burstwick
Open fields
Common pastures
Common meodows
ZA
EN
yards 1000
—Preston metres 1000 A
stakes
