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.
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