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Wednesday 4 April 2018 16.30 - 18.30
X-4 WOM09b Women’s Wages and Time Allocation in Western Europe during Pre-industrial and Industrial Times (16th- Early 20th Centuries) II
6UQ/OG/006 University Square
Network: Women and Gender Chair: Cristina Borderias
Organizers: - Discussants: Raffaella Sarti, Ariadne Schmidt
Corinne Boter : Female Wages and the Gender Wage Gap: the Impact of Industrialization on Dutch Women’s Position in the Labour Market Mirrored in the British Experience, 1750-1914
The question this paper seeks to answer is whether we can find similar effects of industrialization on women’s labour market opportunities in the Netherlands compared to Britain, even though the timing and pace of industrialization were different. Much is unclear about this due to the absence of a long-term women’s ... (Show more)
The question this paper seeks to answer is whether we can find similar effects of industrialization on women’s labour market opportunities in the Netherlands compared to Britain, even though the timing and pace of industrialization were different. Much is unclear about this due to the absence of a long-term women’s wage series. This paper presents the first long-term analysis of Dutch women’s wages in agriculture and industry and traces the development of the gender wage gap (GWG) during the long nineteenth century. The results are compared with similar research on Britain that has concluded that during industrialization (ca. 1750-1850), the position of women working for annual wages improved whereas women working on casual contracts saw their relative position deteriorate (Humphries & Weisdorf, 2015).
I present three findings. First, although Dutch industrialization started later than in Britain, the effects on women’s position in the labour market were comparable. In the industrial sector of both countries, the GWG in casual wages started to widen after steam-driven machinery in the textile industry came into general use. The difference was that this shift to steam power was preceded by a narrowing GWG in the Netherlands after the introduction of manually driven machinery, which was not the case in Britain where the GWG already widened from the very first signs of mechanization. Second, women’s position in the casual agricultural labour market likewise deteriorated in both countries during industrialization (see for British women's agricultural wages for instance: Burnette, 2004). However, in the Netherlands by the end of the nineteenth century, small-scale family farms flourished at the expense of large-scale farms. Consequently, in the Netherlands working in a private business became more feasible for both men and women, which was not the case in Britain. Third, in both countries the GWG in annual wages remained stable and even somewhat closed during industrialization. This means that the relative position of women working on annual contracts (mostly unmarried co-resident domestic or farms servants) improved.
My key conclusion is that structural change and the corresponding demand for labour have been pivotal factors in determining women’s position in the labour market. As a result of these changes, men’s casual wages in both agriculture and industry increased rapidly whereas women’s casual wages hardly rose at all. Thus, especially for married women, staying at home and engaging in other types of labour relations, such as homemaking chores and subsistence agriculture, became a more attractive option than working for wages.

References
Burnette, J. (2004). The Wages and Employment of Female Day-Labourers in English Agriculture, 1740-1850. Economic History Review, 57(4), 664-690.
Humphries, J., & Weisdorf, J. (2015). The Wages of Women in England, 1260-1850. Journal of Economic History, 75(2), 405-447. (Show less)

Victoria López Barahona : Wool Hand-Spinning Wages in Eighteenth-Century Inland Spain
Recent debates on the British 'Industrial revolution' focus on manufacturing wages to account for the transformation of a labour-intensive productive model to a capital-intensive alternative model. Defenders of a High Wage Economy, as well as those describing a Low Wage Economy instead, base their arguments on women's manufacturing wages, and ... (Show more)
Recent debates on the British 'Industrial revolution' focus on manufacturing wages to account for the transformation of a labour-intensive productive model to a capital-intensive alternative model. Defenders of a High Wage Economy, as well as those describing a Low Wage Economy instead, base their arguments on women's manufacturing wages, and in particular on hand-spinners' wages. Hand-spinning was probably the main non-agricultural occupation in 18th century. However, the wages of hand-spinners are extremely difficult to calculate. In this paper we present the available evidence on wool spinners in eighteenth-century inland Spain, where wool production and manufacturing were a long-time productive specialization. There were four million sheep in the region we study, La Mancha, and wool had traditionally been the main Spanish export to the European markets. We describe the diffusion of hand-spinning, the variety of productive forms, including urban and rural production, the spinners' working-time and the wages they were paid. To this purpose, we present fresh evidence linking quantitative and qualitative data, which include spinners' depositions about their wages and uses of time. We conclude, firstly, that hand-spinning was a widespread activity among women; secondly, that it rendered a very low income, as proven by the spinners' frequent remarks on their living in poverty; and thirdly, that in spite of being a poorly paid occupation, it is most likely that hand-spinning made a vital contribution to their families' subsistence, as the continuity of this activity suggests.
Paper co-authored by Victoria Lopez and Carmen Sarasua (Show less)

Manuela Martini : Gendered Division of Work and Wage Conflicts in the Lyon Slk Trades at the End of the 19th Century
Workshops and factories lastingly coexisted in the 19th century Lyon textile production system. In the second half of the century the urban silk industry system’s crisis and the gradual shift to the countryside, especially with the expansion of the factory system, did not lead to an immediate liquidation and ... (Show more)
Workshops and factories lastingly coexisted in the 19th century Lyon textile production system. In the second half of the century the urban silk industry system’s crisis and the gradual shift to the countryside, especially with the expansion of the factory system, did not lead to an immediate liquidation and abrupt substitution of workshop production. High-quality handmade production remained profitable. Master craftsmen and their wives continued to produce specialized fabrics without mechanization in their workshops through a process of workforce reduction, feminization of labour, and increase in the family dimension along paired with a reduction in male co-resident employees in the workshop. One of the conditions of this “resistance” of craft production was the importance of a skilled female workforce.
This shift and the massive presence of women also in countryside factories make the case of Lyon especially compelling for the study of wage differentials and wage conflicts in the second half of the 19th century. Questioning quantitative data and exploring qualitative sources produced both by textile workers and public officers, this paper addresses three interconnected issues: the mechanisms of tariffs’ construction, the conflicts arising around men’s and women’s wages, and the changing contribution of women’s wages to their family incomes. (Show less)



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