Women's Work, Gender Conflict, and Labour Markets in Europe, 1500-1900 Author(s): Katrina Honeyman and Jordan Goodman

Reviewed work(s): Source: The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Nov., 1991), pp. 608-628 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Economic History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2597804 . Accessed: 08/11/2011 05:05
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Economic History Review,XLIV,

4(I99I),

pp. 608-628

gender Women's work, and conflict, in labourmarkets Europe,

I500-I 900
By KATRINA HONEYMAN and JORDAN GOODMAN
he positionof womenin the labourmarkets Europe from middle of the of has been the subjectof ages to the beginning the twentieth century in a substantial vitalresearch effort recent In and years.2 thisarea ofenquiry, as so often the social sciences,greater in certainty surrounds whathappened thanwhyit happened.The central of problemin the history women'swork is to explainthe natureof and changesin the genderdivisionof labour and the persistenceof women in the lowest paid, least stable, and most A in unrewarding occupations.3 wealthof detailis presented recentresearch on working womenin the past whichsuggests framework its analysis. a for The threemain features thisframework be identified follows.The of can as firstinvolves an escape from the periodizationprevalentin social and whichis inappropriate thehistory women'sworkand to of economichistory has previouslyresultedin faultyand misleadingassumptions.The most has to seriousof thesemisconceptions been the attempt explainthe origins of women's oppressionwithinthe contextof the emergenceof industrial The best research recent of revealedthatlabour capitalism. yearshas clearly in are and markets whichwomenface discrimination of verylong standing were not the creationof the forcesof industrialization.4 The secondcomponent an suggests emphasison periodsof genderconflict as of crucial importance.It is by focusingon such crisis periods, which of arisefora numberof reasons,thata clearerappreciation thecauses might of a particulargender division of labour can develop. Two particularly in in intense weremanifest Europe: periodsof genderconflict theworkplace fromthe late fifteenth the end of the sixteenth to and fromthe century, becauseartisans Bothepisodesapparently occurred earlynineteenth century.5 and otherskilledmen believedtheirpositionof economicstrength thus and to be underthreat.The outcomesin both cases included patriarchal power
The most recent general treatment the historyof European women is Boxer and Quataert, of and work;and Bridenthal, Koonz, and Stuard,Becoming Connecting spheres. also Hanawalt, Women See workand family;Hufton, visible.Earlier surveysand generalstudiesinclude Tilly and Scott, Women, 'Women in history';Scott, 'Women in history'. 3This articlefocuseson the literature womenin industrial on occupations.The problemof women workhas been largelyexcludedon the groundsthatto do it justicewould requirea far in agricultural to on longeressay. Notes 25-7 refer some of the literature this. 4Bennett, 'History'; Thomas, 'Women'. in the workplacecan be arguedto be a continuous of feature the politicsof work. 5 Genderconflict instancesof such conflict, are not denyingthis,but it is duringthese we By isolatingtwo momentous of occurred. episodes only that fundamental changesin the pattern women's employment
2

1 We should like to thankPeterEarle forhis valuablecomments an earlierversionof thisarticle. on

6o8

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a moreclearly specified gendering jobs,newrestrictions theemployment of on in of women,and a reduction the value placed on women'sworkassociated witha greater emphasison theirdomesticpositionin the family. The thirdfeature thisframework of concerns natureofpatriarchy the and its institutions especiallyin times of exceptionalcrisis.6It is now more readilyaccepted than in the past that the economic,political,and social of subordination womenhas been at least partlydetermined patriarchal by forces,althoughtoo general a usage of patriarchy an explanationhas as as can weakenedits potential a tool of analysis.Patriarchy be definedas a or societalsystem set of institutional whichaccept, pervading arrangements or male hegemony. There is nothing reinforce, structure 'natural'about this is real in system. Patriarchy a construct, and imagined.What is relevant the presentcontextis that patriarchy may seem inevitablebecause for long invisible(and sometimes even periodsits forcesare inactiveand apparently denied),and its presenceis affirmed whenthreatened. is at thispoint only It of 'active' patriarchy thatits characteristics become open to examination. to the contributions theliterature within framework the By considering recent as outlined, is hopedto showthatsignificant it progress beenmadetowards has an understanding the long-established of genderdivisionof labour and to indicate how it maybe extended further by empirical investigations. I modern for In early Europeancitiesoccupational categories menand women differentiated there and was a dual or segmented werealready labourmarket.7 labour market.Jobs were skilled,or Men's work comprisedthe primary a as perceived such; theyconferred highdegreeof statusand theywerewell bothfinancially in non-monetary rewarded and ways.In workshop production, the for the locus of artisanal labour,wagesformed lesserpartof thepayment werecustomary to and work;of greater importance rights advancedpayments in and credit,widespreadsystemsof subcontracting, payments food and of Socialrewards, lodgings. status, esteem, independence supervision, dignified werepartand parcelof thisworld.8 more and Craftsmen treatment, mobility businessmen than workers.In the building oftenresembledindependent in not industry earlymodernEngland,forexample,craftsmen onlysupplied but of theirown raw materials, earneda significant proportion theirincome in of froma variety economicsources.9Evidence fromParisianworkshops the eighteenth century pointsto a similarconclusion.'0
An approachsupportedby, amongothers,Bennett,'Feminism',pp. 263-4. on but There is a large literature dual labour marketsand labour marketsegmentation nothing Reich,Gordon, Marginal treats subjecthistorically. forexampleSullivan, the See whichexplicitly workers; to and and Edwards,'A theory';Cain, 'Challenge'. For criticisms applications the problemsof women's at pp. 80-5. 'Economists'approaches',pp. i90-8; Walby,Patriarchy work, worksee Blau and Jusenius, 8 An assessment the variousforms labourpayments of of and theirchangeovertimeis needed. Useful Work and wages;idem,'Journeymen'; available. See, forexample,Sonenscher, insights are, nevertheless, men,pp. 344classes;Hobsbawm,Labouring idem,'Weavers'; idem,'Work and wages'; Rule, Labouring assumedto be paupers and England,wage earnerswere generally 70. In sixteenth- seventeenth-century and regardedas unfree;see Hill, 'Pottageforfreeborn'. 9 Woodward,'Wage rates'. 10Sonenscher,'Work and wages'.
6 7

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KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

to The characteristics women's work already conformed those of a of secondarylabour marketwhereemployment was largelyunskilled,of low womenoperated status, poorlypaid, casual, seasonal,and irregular. Working within narrow a weregenerally morepronethanmen occupational structure, to long periods of underemployment unemployment, enjoyedfew and and of the security buffers builtintomen's work. In industrial activities women were moredependentupon monetary thanweremen. With wage payments women workerswere particularly vulnerableto littleother compensation, the vagariesof the early moderneconomy.This reinforced irregular the of rhythm work. in a existed theearly modern economy, Although dual labourmarket clearly its origin difficult trace.It seemsclear,however, is to thatwhilethenature of fundamental in men'sworkremained constant, changes women'semployment in to patterns occurred thelatemiddle ages.We turn, therefore, themechanisms by which women's positionin the labour marketbecame secondary.The transformation ofwomen's work where women becameexcluded beganin towns from crafts skilled and work and wererelegated lowpaid and lowproductivity to Prior thissubordination, to medieval urbanwomen wererelatively employment. in of of well represented a variety high-status the though pattern occupations, theirwork was by no means uniform across Europe."I In some northern suchas Bruges, figured prominently European cities, Leiden,andDouai, women in the manufacture high-quality of woollencloth,filling managerial other and In esteemed suchas Cologne,Florence, and occupations. other cities, however, in or barred Paris,womenwereless conspicuous such positions wereentirely in from them.Similarly, womenparticipated long-distance tradeand in craft in activities London and Colognebutnotin Parisand Venice.The explanation forthisdisparity notentirely is that guildswere clear,butit is certain medieval not always hostileto women; girlswere apprenticed and women occupied in official someguilds positions manyguilds.In Parisand Cologne,moreover, was wererunexclusively womenthough by membership open to bothsexes.'2 In northern European cities,womenappear to have occupied high status in where positionsin the labour marketchiefly those economic activities was organizedon the basis of family production units;thatis, wherefamily membersshared in the productionof goods and servicesfor the market ratherthan selling their labour.'3 High status derived mainlyfromthe independenceassociated with access to raw materialsand control over unitbeganto lose itshold overmarket As distribution. thefamily production in Leiden, Cologne,Douai, and Frankfurt from late fifteenth the production the positionof women in the labour marketdeclinednoticeably. century, Organizational changesin the economyof thesecitiesweakenedthe family small othermodes of production, unitas it strengthened notably production The main victims these of and capitalist commodity production production.
production, 24. p. is discussedin Howell, Women, I" The use and meaningof statusin occupations 'Women,thefamily'; Bennett, of For theposition womenin medievalEurope see idem, Jacobsen, Women; 'Women's work'. For a dissenting voice, see Kowaleskiand Bennett,'Crafts,gilds and women'. 12 p. der Howell, 'Women, the family', 200; Wensky,'Women's guilds'; idem,Stellung Frau. 13 pp. Howell, Women, production, 24, 27-8. Howell uses the term'familyproductionunit' with a p. workand family, I2. by economy'as defined Tilly and Scott, Women, similarmeaningto the 'family

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changes were women who, findingtheir access to high status positions frommarketproduction increasingly restricted, retreated altogether. Economic forceswere clearlyat work,but theywere not the primary cause of The patriarchal thechangesin women'sworkexperience. order,increasingly from participation womenin market the of underthreat production, ensured between menand thattheseeconomicchangesweredistributed differentially women. The exclusionof womenfromhigh statuspositionsin turnserved withinchangedeconomiccircumstances.'4 to reinforce patriarchy werecertainly Organizational changesin industrial production responsible of forsome changesin the working experiences women but a much more movement was on its way led by urban craft gender-inspired guilds. Their was to attack women directlyas workers.This onslaughttook strategy severalforms.Some guildschose to pursuea policyof barring womenfrom in In participation theiraffairs. some cities,this exclusionwas achievedin incremental stages while in others, women were simply forced out. In fifteenth-century Leiden, forexample,womenwerecompletely excludedand the guilds became male preserves.In Cologne, wherewomenhad actively participatedin the guilds during the middle ages, their passage into was marginality less directand immediate equally effective. the late yet By fifteenth almostall of the city'sguilds had become male preserves century, of withtheexception a fewwhoseactivities, suchas needlework, embroidery, and belt-making were becomingdefined women'swork.'5 as Anotherrecoursewas the imposition a genderidentification work of of activitieswithin individual guilds. In early modern German towns, for the kind of example, it became commonfor the tailors' guild to restrict work that seamstresses were allowed to do. In general,seamstresses were relegatedto workingwith old, used, or cheap cloth while male tailors reservedthe rightto all othertypes.The bleachingand dyeingtradesalso betweenmen's and women'swork,the latterbeing distinguished minutely confined small or used articles.In hatting, to male guild memberssought to bar women totallyfrommakinghats but when this failed,theysettled for a compromise to wherebywomen were confined the least prestigious work of veil making,and hat repair.'6 a Evidencefrom numberof Europeaneconomies, indicatesthat however, the mostcommonformof attackwas completely close women'saccess to to trades.Wherever thishappenedtheresult was thesame: therange particular of occupations and open to womenbecameseverely restricted; because those thatwere available became defined women'swork,theynormally as ceased of to be attractive men. In Geneva, the marginality womenin the city's to Few had becomewell established themid sixteenth guildsystem by century. was generally women remainedin the skilled trades; theirwork identity low. Apprenticeships girlswere for weak and theirwages were particularly confinedto a narrow range of trades, such as those of laundress and of seamstress and, overall,girlsaccountedforonly a small proportion the
'4 16

5'

production, I74-83. pp. Howell, Women, pp. 202-I3. Howell, 'Women, the family', women, pp. I78-80. Wiesner,Working

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KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

total number of apprentices.Women were found in domestic service, and launwatchmaking, textileproduction,and workingas seamstresses dresses, but rarely elsewhere.'7 In Frankfurt, Strasbourg,Nuremburg, and Meningen,Stuttgart, Munich,womenwere also excludedfroma large from worldofwork.Male workers numberofcrafts and, moregenerally, the for jobs by singlingout and removing attemptedto reduce competition on demanded restrictions women's work, even in women. Journeymen Wives instanceswhere this worked againsttheirown economicinterests. from decentwagesand widows,who had been given wereprevented earning to on husband'sshop in earlyGerman unrestricted rights carry theirformer 18 foundthesecurtailed. In Augsburg, example,widows for guildordinances, to and therewas a growing werenot permitted keep apprentices, in general, towardswomenoperating of hostility independently theirmen.19 Guilds did not, however,confinethemselves the simplyto restricting kinds of workwomencould practise;theyalso soughtto definethe proper work in gender termsalone. In spheres of productiveand unproductive centralEurope during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,conflict arose betweenguilds and householdproduction unitsover the definition of production, which productive work.20 Guildsmen feared thatruralhousehold could produce goods at lower cost than urban artisans,would undermine their monopoly position. Guilds had previouslybeen hostile to rural theirattack century, production,but afterthe middle of the seventeenth as was directed muchat womenas producers at rural as household production. Guildsmen, therefore, sought to debar the household from the market womenfromproductive work. Gender,rather than economyand, thereby, became the determining factor.In future, esteemed industrial organization, workwas to be a male sphereand domesticdutiesa femaleand productive less respectedone. of in - The identification genderas the criterion decidingwork values is also evident in the rhetoricof guilds and city councils in early modern on Germany.Prohibitions women's work were argued on the ground of hostileto genderalone. Some citycouncilsseem to have been unashamedly in but were restrained theirdesireto exclude womenfrom womenworkers because of the likelihoodof theirbecominga the labour marketaltogether burden. Low paid casual occupations were tolerated for this reason. rhetoric by Journeymen, too, took advantageof the chorus of anti-female tasks whichhad previously been the successfully appropriating productive of responsibility the master'swifeand daughter.2' The origins of the guilds' hostilityto women are still very poorly That it was partof a complexprocessis beyonddoubt, but its understood. preciselocationis unclear.Guilds,forexample,wereinvolvedin an intense of withthe stateand guild monopoliesover a wide variety politicalstruggle
of Monter,'Women in CalvinistGeneva', pp. i99-204. See also Snell, 'Apprenticeship women'. pp. 3, I57. women, Wiesner,Working 19 Roper, 'Work, marriage pp. 62-8i. and sexuality', 20 is The following based upon Quataert,'Shaping of women'swork',pp. II22-35. 21 women,pp. II-35, I94-8. See also Roper, 'Women, marriageand sexuality', Wiesner, Working pp. i6-8i.
'7 18

WOMEN S WORK IN EUROPE,

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workwerethemselves beingattacked.On the otherhand, women industrial institutions were also the targetof both spiritualand secular authorities; transformation. and the family were subject to profound such as marriage its Whateverthe explanationfor the hostility, impacton workingwomen fromthe labour market was straightforward. Some urban womenretreated in foundsomerefuge thehome;others, however, and altogether, presumably labour marketand gravitated towardsthe swelled the casual and irregular industrial trades as well as towardslarge-scale,non-artisanal distributive for In wool and silkindustries, example,women production.22 theFlorentine tasks such as weaving the of appropriating formed majority the workforce, all in whichhad earlierbeen male preserves; the Bolognesesilk industry of of the weavers were women. In both cases, the preponderance women can be explainedby the exclusionof womenfromartisanaltrades workers of consisted simplecloths and by the factthatthe outputof theseindustries in the littleskill or capital.23 contrast, silk industries Lyons, By requiring Genoa, and Venice produced rich and complicatedcloths and the vast of majority weaverswere male.24 nor femaleor male about any activity, were inherently There was nothing whatidentified and gender workwas theintersection thecategorizations static; of the economicand gendersystems.In the period fromthe late fifteenth them,male to guilds, and through century the middle of the seventeenth, in were instrumental creatingan alteredideologyof genderand artisans, of work. The idea and reality a femaleartisanwhich was commonin the middle ages became untenablein the earlymodernperiod. The privileges, of and the customary rights,trappings artisanalwork the work identity, became the exclusivedomain of skilled men. By settingartisanal values, werealso equatingwomenwith workin general, workapartfrom guildsmen the unskilled-a criticalsignpostforthe future.It is true,of course, that womenwerein occupations by unrepresented guilds,but the manyworking in point is thatit was the guild whichprovokedgenderconflict important the workplace. was a occupations The exclusionof womenfrom wide rangeof industrial seems to have been devoid of the The countryside an urban -phenomenon. womenthatexistedin the towns.25 The kind of hostility towardsworking in labourbeginning thelatesixteenth boomin thedemandforruralindustrial in centuries swelledthe numberof womenworking and earlyseventeenth
22 and seamstresses', 203-5; idem,'Women's WiesnerWood, 'Paltry pp. peddlers';Wiesner,'Spinsters work', pp. 67-9. p. Poni, 'Proto-industrialization', 3I3; Goodman, 23 Brown and Goodman, 'Women and industry'; relations',pp. 337-8. 'Tuscan commercial pp. 24 Davis, 'Women in the crafts'; Garden,Lyonet les lyonnais, 225-8; Massa, La 'fabbrica';Rapp, p. and decline, 28. Industry economic overruralindustrial Historians 25 This is partly production. explainedby the absenceof guild control production.See for disagree,however,over the precise natureof genderdivisionsin ruralindustrial idem'Womenwithout pp. example,Berg,Age ofmanufactures, I29-58; Hufton,'Womenand thefamily'; pp. 52-3; Snell, 'Agricultural and weavers, men'; Gullickson,'Sexual divisionof labor'; idem,Spinners Roberts, 'Sickles and scythes',pp. i8-9; Wrigley,'Men on the land', and seasonal unemployment'; pp. spheres, 42-4. These stressthe existenceof clear divisions. p. 336; Boxer and Quataert,Connecting economy',pp. 6i-3 and Quataert,'Combiningagrarianand industrial family Medick, 'Proto-industrial livelihood',p. I5i argue fora neutralsituation.Much workremainsto be done.

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It to industrial production.26 is verylikelythatwomen'slabourwas critical the expansion of rural industrialproduction,especially that of textile manufacture. By the late seventeenth century,women's work in urban Europe had withthe artisanal settledinto a new pattern.No longerassociateddirectly to band of industries consisting trades,womenwerenow confined a narrow trades.Outside industry, primarily textilemanufacture the clothing of and the chiefareas of women'sworkwere retailing and domesticservice. II that in organization occurred nineteenthDespite thechangesin industrial on pressures employment patterns, the century Europe withtheirattendant fundamentally same. the positionof womenin the labour marketremained The functionsperformedby men and women within the pre-factory but not without sectorpersistedin the nineteenth century manufacturing of in genderrelations the intervening upheaval.The possibility restructuring in was labourmarket momentarily indicated changes production methods, by but ultimatelymen retained their monopoly of the more rewarding l 28 occupations. Female labour played a criticalrole in the expansionof the variousprocessesof industrial was production.29 While the factory capitalist of and feature nineteenth-century industrial transformation themoststriking cheap femalelabour was also used in dependedheavilyon womenworkers,
26 in on There is now an enormousliterature the expansionof ruralindustry earlymodernEurope. in For conditions and background these to Proto-industrialization. market The fieldis surveyed Clarkson, see regionsmostfavoured the for pursuits. Agricultural developments Goodmanand Honeyman,Gainful expansion of industrialproductionwere those with a large landless or land-poorpopulation. See and and Spinners weavers; Quataert,'New view'; Gullickson, Gullickson,'Agriculture cottageindustry'; Holmes and Quataert, 'Approach to modern labor'; Quataert, 'Combiningagrarianand industrial to work livelihood'.Many youngwomenwho would earlierhave migrated townsin searchof industrial to now at economy. Snell,'Apprenticeship See and apprenticeships, remained homecontributing thefamily p. of women'; Berg,Age of manufactures, I55; Monter,'Women in CalvinistGeneva', p. 200; Carmona, womenremainedin the countryside until 'Economia toscana', p. 38. In addition,if young,unmarried whenmarried-see, forexample, to theymarried, theytendedto continue workin thesame employment and weavers,pp. I29-6i and Hufton, 'Women, work and marriage'.This may Gullickson,Spinners of cities;de Vries,European stagnant populations Europeanindustrial account,in part,forthe generally of urbanization; Hohenbergand Lees, Urban Europe, pp. i06-36. The importance young unmarried of has been emphasized to production textiles womenin the labour forceduringthe transition factory workand family,pp. I5i-6; for Europe, the United States, and Japan. See Tilly and Scott, Women, 'Relativeproductivity'; 'Two forms'. Goldin and Sokoloff, Saxonhouseand Wright, 27 The best accountis givenby Gullickson Spinners pp. in and weavers, 46-85; idem,'Agriculture and cottageindustry'; idem,'Proto-industrialization'. 28 This patternis still not fullyaccepted. Althoughearly or more traditional historiansstrongly or for women, accompaniednineteenth-century believed that new opportunities, even emancipation and Landes, Pinchbeck,Women industrial change (for example George,Englandin transition; workers; the Unbound Prometheus), weightof opinionis now on the side of those (like Richards,'Women in the Britisheconomy')who arguefora declinein women'seconomicposition.Many of thislatter groupalso opportunity, era, womenhad enjoyeda goldenage ofeconomic favour notionthatbefore capitalist the the as suggestedby the work of Clark, Working and work, life. On the golden age see Hanawalt, Women and Bennett,'Historythatstandsstill'. pp. vii-xviii 29For the use of women's labour and the persistence hand and intermediate of techniquesas an to see pp. alternative or in associationwithmechanization Berg,Age of manufactures, I45-5i and idem, in has been 'Women's work', pp. 76-7. The role of children,particularly the earlyfactories, recently pp. Mather,and Nardinelli, 'New look'. See also Heywood,Childhood, 97questionedby Freudenberger,

I45.

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the expansionof domesticservice,30 as the basis of some new urban and rural trades,and in the proliferating urban sweatshops late nineteenthof centuryEurope.3' Women, therefore, provided much-neededflexibility withinthe contextof innovation, while men steadfastly maintainedtheir of domination better-paid occupationsand traditional crafts.32 From as earlyas the I820S, but also duringthe laternineteenth century, gender relationsin the labour marketwere temporarily disrupted.Antiakin to those prominent earlymodernguild politics, in femalesentiments, resurfaced. While the rhetoric and the exclusionary wereredolent strategies of an earlierage, the genderconflict the nineteenth of embraced century novelsocialconcerns. The marital statusofwomentookon a new significance as protective the cult of the family legislation, wage, and the ideologyof interacted emphasizegenderinequality the labour market to in domesticity and to establisha hierarchical structure employment of thatpersiststo the present.Thus, in nineteenth-century European labour markets, married as womenbecamemoreovertly marginalized, youngwomenand singlewomen in predominated thevisibleurbantrades.In thetextile for factories, example, accountedfor the bulk of the unskilledworkforce,33 and theycommonly theydominateddomesticserviceoccupationsand some sectorsof garmentmakingin the townsand citiesof England, France, Italy,and Germany.34 Later in thenineteenth the new openings, century, servicesectorprovided for unmarriedwomen. Single women found work in the particularly department store,whichappearedin the largerEuropeancitiesin response of to thegrowth consumerism. These newretail outlets provided employment on a grand scale; the Bon Marche in Paris, forexample,employed2,500 in sales assistants the i88os and theLouvre, 3,500-4,000 in I900.3 Although some men were employedin these stores,women were much preferred because of theircheapness,because theyweresoberand polite,and because theywere consideredto be docile. The work was unskilledand low paid, and forwomenwas usuallycurtailed marriage.36 introduction the on The of in restructured clerical typewriter the last quarterof the nineteenth century for occupationsand also providednew opportunities women.Male workers gained fromthis change, however,for, while women were allocated low statussecretarial workin banksand jobs, men movedintohighstatusoffice insurancecompanies.37 The majorityof female clerical occupationswere
30 Tilly, 'Paths of proletarianization'; idem,'Family, genderand occupations'.
31 32

Schmiechen, Sweatedindustries. They continued use the apprenticeship to womengaining system, but, increasingly, theyprevented access to the newest technology, and thus, commonly,to the best jobs; Rule, 'Propertyof skill'; Humphries,'Sexual divisionof labor'. 33 Richards, 'Womenin theBritish p. work family, 82. and economy', 346; Tillyand Scott,Women, p. The preponderance young, unmarried of femalesin cottonfactories also indicatedin Hall, 'Home is turned',pp. 24-5. The work of Hilden, Working women,pp. 278-9, however,shows that in the late in nineteenth who married century, the mill townsin the Nord, well over half of all women workers remainedin employment. is Why the Nord divergedfromthe generalpattern not at all clear. 34 Scott and Tilly, 'Women's work', p. 39. 35 McBride, 'A woman's world', p. 665. 36 Ibid., pp. 670-I, 679. 37 Davies, 'Woman's place'; Zimmeck,'Jobs forthe girls',pp. I59-60.

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bar a and in most European offices, marriage reservedforthe unmarried, century.38 operateduntilwell into the twentieth different pattern. followedan altogether Married women's employment The precise natureof theirwork is, however,difficult ascertain.Many to statistics otherrecords) married womendid notentertheofficial (or precisely labour market and because their because of theirlocationin the secondary In workwas irregular, casual, and sometimes onlysemi-legal.39 manyparts from morevisibleareas the ofindustrial Europe, womentendedto withdraw and seek of waged work-the factory and the workshop-upon marriage, householdresponsibilities.40 Britain In that employment could accommodate century, whilein thistrendbegan beforethe mid nineteenth and Germany, the Francethesocialand political discouraging gainful employment pressures of marriedwomenbegan to emergelaterin the century.4' in Married womenworkers nineteenth-century Europewereso concentrated to in urban domestic industrythat it is no exaggeration speak of its as of feminization one of the principalcomponents European industrializindustry, variousformsof retail in ation.42They clusteredin the clothing trading, and in menial occupations (like laundressing)that resembled of householdchores,a patternreminiscent the earlymodernperiod. The of of clothes,forexample,had long been an important component making women'sworkand in mostlargecitiesof industrial Europe, the practiceof the handicraft trades of plain sewing, shirtmaking, and button stitching in apparently proved the salvationof women with familyresponsibilities need of an income.43 Plentyof such workexistedand it was rareto finda thatdid not employmanywomenat homein additionto those firm clothing in the factory workshop. or subsumedwithin the From the i830s onwards,the numerous occupations of employedthousandsof womenin the major generaldescription clothing European cities. Sweated labour either in the home or in what were termedfamily workshops(sweatshops)prevailedin all the euphemistically for needleworking trades,wherewomenworkedirregularly littlereward.44 consistedof marriedwomen. In Berlin The greaterpart of this workforce weremarried, widowed, in I887, forexample,75 per centofall homeworkers or separated women,45with an identical proportionof these categories
38 It was the mid I930s beforemarriedwomen were employedin the BritishCivil Service; see pp. 903-4, 922-4. On clerical work in the postal servicesin Zimmeck, 'Strategiesand stratagems', France, and England see Nienhaus, 'Technologicalchange'. Germany, 39 This featureof under-recording the official in in sources is illustrated many studies, including work, pp. I 7-22; Scottand Tilly, 'Women's pp. I I-4, 49-64; Roberts,Women's Women's work, Alexander, introd.,pp. 36-4I. work', p. 40; John,Unequalopportunities, 40 Typicallyat home and frequently jobs like sewingor clotheswashingthat resembledhousehold chores. 41 According p. to Offen,'Feminism,antifeminism', i83, 40 per cent of the femaleFrench labour for the pp. women, 278-9, estimates equivalentfigure the forcein i9oi were married;Hilden, Working Nord to be 58 per cent in the same year. p. spheres, ioi. 42 Franzoi, '. . With the wolf, pp. I49, I54; Boxer and Quataert,eds., Connecting pp. legislation', 47-5I; Jordan,'Exclusion of women'. See also Boxer, 'Protective 43 Franzoi, '. . With the wolf, pp. I49-50. 44 Alexander, pp. legislation', 45-7. Women's work,pp. 30-40; Boxer, 'Protective 45 Hauser, 'Technischer p. Fortschritt', i63.

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I500-I900

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in of employedas outworkers Hamburg in I9I3.46 The introduction the for sewingmachineconsiderably extendedthe possibilities sweatshopand for homeworking employment women. Not only did it allow women to reconcile domestic functions withwage earning, and to complywiththe late moralists'feminine ideal, but it permitted clothing the nineteenth-century manufacturers make fulluse of a cheap and flexible to labourforceat a time when the expansionin the demand forready-to-wear clothing placed great and greater subdivision pressure existing on methods production suggested of of tasks.47 The garment industries Paris, Hamburg, and London were typically of putting-out system) making organizedon the basis of outwork a refined (or use of the large femalelabour forceavailablein the fastexpandingcities.48 The systemwas capable not only of mass output, but also of the rapid expansion and contractioncrucial in a trade where extreme seasonal in fluctuations demandoccurred.49 This was thecase in theclothing industry in and The womenwho dominated generally in women'sfashions particular. the labour forcein this sectorsuffered veryirregular employment.50 A clear, yet complexgenderdivisionof labour existedin the nineteenthworkers both by the century European garment tradeswhichdistinguished tasks theyperformed and by the locationin which theyperformed them. The vast majority outworkers of werewomen,and thosemen thatdid enter sectordid so as managers and middlemen.5" Men monopolized the sweating unskilled such skilled work as remainedwithinthe scope of the generally sector. Specializing in tailoring and the production of ready-to-wear men workedin small workshopsand abhorredthe practiceof outerwear, in mainly themassproduction homeworking.52 Women,bycontrast, operated and sector, at home, making women's garments,underwear,millinery, clothes.53 also interacted with standard workmen's Outworkand homework in trade.In the Parisian largerscale production othersectorsof the clothing mechanized,a large flowermaking trade,forexample,which was partially part of the production processwas carriedout in the homes of individual As or workers in smallworkshops. in othertrades,a cleardivisionof labour existed,wherebymen were responsiblefor the dyeingand cutting,while women specialized in shaping and branchingthat required more manual dexterity.54 suited the needs of many women, it did not end While homeworking towardslow-paidfemalelabour. Indeed, in some instances, men's antipathy in skilledcraftsmen were angered century, particularly the earlynineteenth
46 47

Dasey, 'Women's work', p. 243. Perrot,'Femmes et machines',pp.

48
50

p. Ibid., pp. 238, 243; Hauser, 'TechnischerFortschritt', i63. p. Hauser, 'TechnischerFortschritt', i6o and Dasey, 'Women's work', p. 235, althoughthis was Britishcities who workers,mostlyJews, in late nineteenth-century not true of the male immigrant tended to be confined,or oftenassociated with sweated, unskilledwork; see Schmiechen,Sweated pp. p. trades, I75. Sweated industries, 32-7, i89; Bythell, 52 Scott, 'Men and women', p. 70. 53 Dasey, 'Women's work', p. 235. 54 Boxer, 'Women in industrial homework'.
51

49 Dasey, 'Women's work', pp. 232-4.

pp. Europe, Hohenberg Lees, Urban and

I2-3.

I75-247.

6i8

KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

by the competition cheaperand less skilledfemaledomesticlabour. In of the earlyi820S, tailorsin the Saxon cityof Naumburgan der Saale believed owntraining and undermined their families' livelihoods be threatened their to in by the workof seamstresses engagedin dressmaking theirown homes.55 tailorsin London in the i83os accused sweatshop Similarly, journeymen 56 their and oflowering their standards. living womenofundercutting product of component nineteenthThe expansionof domesticwork, an integral was the resultboth of married development, century European industrial and acceptableemployment of women'sneed to findsociallyand politically subdivision taskswithin Mechanization the increasing of factory production. of in one partof the workprocess,forexample,often the generated growth in and of could give rise to homework another;57 the growth largefactories a divisionof labour thatincluded(unskilled)tasksthatcould be performed easilyby hand or by small machinesat home. By makinguse of a plentiful the not supplyof cheap femalelabourin a domesticsetting, capitalists only but also levels,58 reduced theirlabour costs by 25-50 per cent on factory in diluted the power of the artisanby interfering the continuousstruggle Thus the greater divisionof betweenmen and womenforjob recognition. labourservedto intensify gendersegregation theworkforce further the of and the and secondary labour markets.59 confirmed positionof the primary employed,as before,in less skilledand Workingwomenwere therefore lowerpaid occupationsthan the majority men irrespective the nature of of and location of their work. Thus, young single women who performed in similartasks to theirmale counterparts factories were as disadvantaged as their married sisters who operated from home or in domestic-like in environments occupationsthat were almost exclusively'female'. That in remained subordinate the context women'spositionin the labourmarket of economic and industrialchange was by no means automatic,but was forcesthatemphasized morethe resultof a numberof powerful interacting These women's domesticrole and men's positionas family breadwinners. in and of forces werepatriarchal character, includetheideology domesticity,60 the wage, stateprotective legislation,6' widespreaddemand for the family efforts monopolizetechnology successful to and skill. and the craftsman's

pp. of feminism, I7I-3; phenomenon;see forexample,Rendall, Origins modern 57 A widelyrecorded workand family, pp. I23-36. Tilly and Scott, Women, p. legislation', 49. 58 Boxer, 'Protective 59Rendall, Origins modern pp. feminism, I55-8. of 60 p. p. See legislation', 47; Hall, 'Earlyformation'. also Rose, 'Proto-industry', i9i. Boxer,'Protective 61 The French legislation of i892, which was supportedby a further of i900, is discussed in act applied to Germany.In Britain,state Boxer, 'Protectivelegislation',pp. 46-7. A similarchronology of in withthe Mines Act of i842. The significance this earlier, intervention women'sworkbegan rather is considered in Humphries, 'Protectivelegislation'and John, 'Colliery legislation'. Accordingto Sweatedindustries, I34-60, the Factory and WorkshopActs of i89i and i895 mayhave pp. Schmiechen, of into domesticand otherunregulated conditions labour. helped to driveproduction

55 Quataert,'Shaping of women'swork', pp. II22-3. 56 work,pp. 3I-2; Taylor,Eve, pp. I0I-I7. Alexander,Women's

WOMEN S WORK IN EUROPE,

I500-I900

6i9

III division labourwas confirmed thenineteenth in The hierarchical of century notablytextiles,greater aftera briefinterludewhen, in some industries, were created for women by changes in the employment opportunities of and and were supported capitalist by organization technology production As interests.62 artisanshad used theircontrolover the guilds in the late women'sencroachment skilled on medievaland earlymodernperiodto resist Europe, and well-paidoccupations,so skilled men in nineteenth-century fearful an erosion of theirpositionat work and at home, employeda of range of restrictive practicesfor similarends. Their actions included the of thatmight have undermined potentially manipulation the verytechniques theirown position:the deskilling implicitin the new technology itselfwas of introduction cheapand 'less skilled'female compounded thethreatened by of labour. Throughthe activities the tradeunionsto whichskilledmen had from beginning thecentury, of a the enforced restricted theyachieved entry theirown position controlover the use of technical innovations, enhancing the and extending inequality betweenmen's workand women'swork. One of the resultsof theiractions was a 'gendering'of machinery: particular technologiescommonly became associated with one sex only.63 Men while some inventions,64 monopolized the bulk of nineteenth-century such as the typewriter, to a lesserextent sewingmachine, and the machines, of to of was became the preserve women.Integral the gendering technology a genderingof skill, such that skilled work became associated only with male machines, while 'women's machines' were confinedto low-paid, notionsof Thus, by restructuring unskilled,and exploitative occupations.65 both avoided much of the deskilling potentialof the new skill, craftsmen and further the of technology strengthened perception theirown work as skilledand thatof womenas unskilled. and This general amongindustries techniques) pattern (subjectto variation betweenmen and women was the outcomeof a seriesof individual struggles The and forcontrol overtechnology thusofskilledemployment. mostwidely over the mule in cottonspinning,66 and cited examplesof such struggles, revealthe mechanisms machinein the printing the compositing industry,67
62 of to preferred employwomen (and would have There is littledoubt thatthe majority capitalists extentin the absence of male resistance). done so to a greater 63 reference pp. 'Gendersegregation', I72-3 makeexplicit Rose,' "Genderat work" ', p. I i9 and idem, and it in century industry the nineteenth of to the gendering machinesin the Englishmidlandshosiery capitalism.Such allocationof machinesto is implicitin much other writingon nineteenth-century century, verylittleevidenceon this but gendersmay well have existedbeforethe nineteenth particular subjectis available. machinein the printing and the compositing mule in cottonspinning 64 Most notably the self-acting tradewhichwill be discussedbelow. 65 Except where theywere used by men, for example, when skilled male tailorsused the sewing machine. 66 Most of the detailed researchon this has focused on Britain, but evidence indicatesparallels elsewhere; Lazonick, 'Industrial relations'; Freifeld, 'Technological change'; Valverde, 'Giving the female'. 67 See Cockburn,Brothers pp. and Machinery dominance, I5-43 for an overview.In France, the of Couriau affair-a dispute in the printingindustry-sent ripples throughthe entire French labour and women'. 'Workers by notably Sowerwine, discussedin the literature, This is extensively movement. p. spheres, i85. See also Boxer and Quataert,eds., Connecting

620

KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

by whichmachineswere monopolizedand skill was reconstructed withina novel framework. The introduction the self-actor the i830s removed of in all technical barriers the use of unskilledlabouron the mule, but despite to to theefforts manycotton of factory masters introduce willing female labour, the mule craft unionists closed ranksand successfully repelledthe challenge to theirposition.68 Amongothertacticstheypersuadedthe employers that the theywould relievethemof some of the taskof controlling labourforce. mule spinningremaineda skilled job, largely By carefulredefinition, entrustedto male hands. Althoughthe new spinningsystemrequired a different range of tasks, skilled craftstatus persisted,not for technical mechanical was reasons(thoughsometimes adjustment required)but because theoperator assumedresponsibility themanagement thelabourprocess for of The to had been established and forqualitycontrol.69 ability supervise earlier as a skill to which only men had access, and by arguingthatthis was an the of retained control over essentialcomponent the new system, craftsmen In employment. cottonspinning,a hierarchical genderdivisionof labour was establishedwheremule spinning was male and skilled,while women, using older techniques,performed unskilledwork. The genderof the the determined statusof work.70 the actor,more than the technology itself, withinthe traditionally trade Gender conflict male-dominated printing similarly invertedthe potentialimpactof technicaldevelopment. The late nineteenth-century introduction an Americaninventionrepresented of a in whichbothremoved physical the restraints majorleap forward compositing on the employment women in this stage of the production of processand reduced the necessarylevel of skill. The male printers' antipathy towards of the proposed introduction cheaperfemalelabour was revealedin both the and concerted actionsof themale France and Britain through immediate craftunions.7' In France, the Couriau affair illustrated both the level of arousedand the effectiveness male solidarity;72 of whilein Britain, hostility and the retention skill by the eventualmonopolyof the new technology of of the male printerswas facilitated the poor organization the print by the manufacturers.73 Neitherwomennoremployers resisted long-established mightof the craftsmen and, despite the temporary appearance of female in compositors Scotland,theirproportion ultimately changedlittlein either Britainor France.74
68 women and men had commonly in engaged together union Until the early nineteenth century, in practised activity. Beginning the i820S, womenweredeniedaccess to unionsas skilledmale unionists Jordan,'Exclusion of women'. exclusionary tactics;Rose, 'Genderantagonism'; 69 Freifeld, of pp. 'Technological change';Rose, 'Gendersegregation', I73-4. The monopoly supervision althoughthere is some century, by men had been generallyestablishedwell beforethe nineteenth men at the end of the eighteenth evidencethatin France, it was not unusual to see womensupervising century; Perrot,'Femmes et machines',p. 8. 70 This is discussed by Lazonick, 'Industrialrelations';Freifeld,'Technologicalchange'; Valverde, 'Givingthe female',pp.62I-5. 71 Boxer, 'Foyer or factory', p. I92. 72 Sowerwine,'Workersand women', pp. 427-4I. is The meaningof the Couriau affair subject to eds., Connecting are debate-the protagonists discussedin ibid., pp. 4I2-4. See also Boxerand Quataert, spheres i85. p. 73 74

Brothers, pp. Cockburn,

Ibid., pp.
23, 26-3I;

'Workersand women',p. Sowerwine,

28-9.

4I5.

WOMEN S WORK IN EUROPE,

I500-I900

62I

it Whateverthe genderassociationof a new technology, servedto raise the level of male skill relativeto thatof women. The sewingmachinewas withwomenand the growth unskilled,casual sweated quicklyidentified of It labour,and homeworking.75 exemplified position women,especially the of married industrial women,in late nineteenth-century Europe.76It provided women with the opportunity integratewage earning with domestic to functions and thus to conformto the ideologyof domesticity; and as a it domestic technology, servedto emphasizethe hierarchical genderdivision of labour and especially women's position as marginalizedand casual workers.77 Women's monopoly of the use of the typewriter forced a restructuring skilledactivities of and a heightening thegenderdivisionof of labourwithinclericalwork. Categories previously occupiedby men became filled womenand redefined unskilled, menmovedintonewlycreated as as by skilledjobs.78 was far fromneutralin its influence Nineteenth-century on technology divisions theworkplace. in gender Through machinery, wereconstructed jobs with the gender of their occupantsin mind, ensuringthat women were crowdedinto low paid jobs whichemphasizedtheirpreviously established The process was frequently genderrole as supplementary wage earners.79 activated skilledmale unionists to by responding a perceived threat cheap of with its potentialfor weakeningpatriarchal femalecompetition authority. The institutional environment the supported male cause, as theultimate goal of the skilledmen-the removalof womenfrom labourmarket- found the a parallel in the concerns of other social groups. Patriarchalforces women's subordinate underpinned positionin the labour marketand were in manifest the actionsof the state. particularly

IV
of The proletarianization female labour in nineteenth-century Europe debate about the positionof womenin the economy.In provokedextensive Britainin the I840s and in France and Germany towardsthe end of the of century,the visible participation women in the labour market was considereda problem both morallyand because it challengedpatriarchal power.80 A range of possible solutionswas discussed, includingthe total elimination women'swage labour,equal pay, and sex segregated of spheres of work. The most popular answer, however,was protective legislation whichattempted restrict to femaleand child labourin factories and mines.
75 While higher,indeed skilled, statuswas accorded to work performed by men using the sewing machine. 76 Perrot,'Femmes et machines',pp. 7, I2-3, Fortschritt', I57-63; pp. I5-7; Hauser, 'Technischer p. Offen,' "Powered by a woman's foot"'; Offen,'Feminism,antifeminism', i83; Dasey, 'Women's work', 228. p. 77 It even became an 'instrument women'sservitude' suggested as by Boxer,'Protective legislation', of P. 49. 78 Davies, 'Woman's place', pp. 248-59; Zimmeck,'Jobsforthe girls',pp. I59-60. 79 Rose,' "Gender work" pp. ii8-28. ', at 80 Implicitin a good deal of the literature; pp. Boxer, 'Protective legislation', 45-7; Hilden, Working stabilized'. women, i65; and Seccombe, 'Patriarchy p.

622

KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

Such legislationwas introducedin Britainin I842, in Germanyin I89I, and in France in I892.81 It was designed to reinforcethe position of to helped further marginalize women as wives and mothersand certainly German factory inspectorsat women's position in the labour market.82 century, example,waxed lyricalat the success for the turnof the twentieth women to the home.83Thus, as of their labour legislationin returning in women were squeezed out of employment the public arena, theywere forced either into purely domestic activities or into homeworkingor Though it has been argued that domesticwork sweatshop employment. France owners in late nineteenth-century was a means by which factory imposed by the law, it is as likely that the could avoid the restrictions to legislationitselfprovided the capitalistwith the opportunity remove of women from the factoryinto the more economical environment the sweatshop.84Althoughprotectivelegislationestablisheda precedentfor in improvedworkingconditionsfor all workers,it was more significant drivinga wedge between men's work and women's work in industry.It in arenas of productionand excluded women fromcompetition important but to work in unprotectedplaces where offeredthem little alternative was minimal.85 gender conflict in The marginalization femalelabour,an essential of factor themakingof was themodern advocacyofthefamily by family, compounded thepersistent 86 wage. That the norm of a breadwinner wage did not become a reality its in beforeI9I4, does not detract from significance the nineteenth century as a principlethat tended to undermine women's positionin the labour The idea of an individualmale breadwinner to market.87 earningsufficient maintaina wifeand childrenemergedin most partsof Europe duringthe in course of the nineteenth century parallelwithan emphasison women's theireconomicvalue and encouraging diffusion the domesticrole, reducing form.This family of the 'ideal' bourgeoisfamily wage was an unrealistic of goal for the majority workingpeople, yet it was supportedby mostwomenas well as men-and became a plank of male union wage demands. Men believed thatwith the introduction a breadwinner of wage, women's in the labour marketwould be reduced. They would thus be involvement less likelyto competeforscarcejobs and to drivedown the priceof labour. As a result,men's positionin the labourmarket would be greatly improved, but not onlyabsolutely also in relation thepowerof theemployers.88 to The since a attainment the familywage would also strengthen of patriarchy, and full-time housewife providedmen withpowerand privileges dependent in both the home and the workplace.89
81 John,'Collierylegislation'; Boxer, 'Protective legislation'.

stabilized',pp. 63-4, 73-4. p. Ibid.; Rose, 'Proto-industry', i9i; Seccombe, 'Patriarchy Quataert,'Source analysis',p. I20. 84 pp. Boxer, 'Protective legislation', 49-50. 85 Ibid., p. 55. 86 Ibid., p. 47. 87 Mark-Lawsonand Witz, 'From "family labour" ', p. I54. 88 Seccombe, 'Patriarchy stabilized',p. 55. 89 Ibid., pp. 58-9; Rose, ' "Genderat work" ', pp. I25-6.
82 83

WOMEN S WORK IN EUROPE,

I500-I900

623

withskilledworkmen, The conceptof the family wage, whichoriginated and also foundsupportin the state,amongcapitalists, in themiddleclass.90 Pressurefor its introduction grew in Britainfromearlyin the nineteenth but emergedon the continent only fromi85o. In France, where century, more women remainedin paid employment upon marriagethan in most of womenas otherindustrial European economies,the perception working man arose a problemand of the threat theirlabourto the skilledworking of late.9' It was not until the i88os and i89os that male unionists relatively and middle-class concernover the wellbegan to pressfora family wage,92 demandsforwomento return home duties to beingof children heightened husband.93 withthe financial supportof a breadwinning the wage From the earlynineteenth century conceptof the breadwinner in aided bychanges workpractices, and thebourgeois family gainedcurrency, of which the most importantwas the decline of family hiring and women became employedas individuals, subcontracting.94 Consequently, competingwith men in the labour marketand earningan independent to of was antithetical to wage.95This threat the job security skilledworkers that sincethe thepatriarchal environment had existedvirtually unchallenged The pressure placed on earlierperiod of upheavalin the sixteenth century. industrialdevelopments reawakenedthe patriarchy nineteenth-century by In structures. the nineteenth need to reinforce-ifnot redefine-patriarchal became associatedwithmanyseparatebut relatedissues century, patriarchy women's economicrole and emphasizedtheir which, as theyundermined the and husbands domesticresponsibilities, strengthened power of fathers of and at home.96 The growth feminism, antiof bothin the labourmarket and all control, of whichbecame central feminism, of the politicsof fertility and need to be seen in this issues in the late nineteenth twentieth centuries, context. of womenwere By the outbreak the FirstWorldWar, Europeanworking burdened by actions of the state and by a perniciousdomesticideology areas of employment. whichconfined themto traditional Occupationsin the of the late nineteenth earlytwentieth and such as centuries, new industries car manufacture, and electricity, which had steel, chemicals, engineering, out artisanal closed sector,wereeffectively growndirectly of the anti-female to women.97
90 Seccombe,'Patriarchy considers and however, 'Property patriarchy', stabilized',pp. 65-74. Murray, of along genderlines (forreasonsof kinship)would have given structuring property thatthe historical ideology. rise to the male breadwinner 91Hilden, Working women, 278-9. pp. in whichhad occurredin Britainin the i830s; 92 This coincidedwiththe deathof feminism socialism feminism'. 'Depopulation,nationalism'; p. Boxer,'Foyeror factory', i99. See also Offen, idem,'Defining 93 Offen,'Feminism,antifeminism', i83. p. 94 The exclusionof women from the workplacewas oftenarguedon economicgrounds,thatis that pp. women competedforjobs withmen and drove down the wages forall; Boxer, 'Foyer or factory', i96-8. 95 Seccombe, 'Patriarchy stabilized',p. 66. 96 Includingskilledmale unionism, the family wage, a domesticideology,the notionof the bourgeois legislation. family, and protective 97 See forexample,Jordan, Wecker, 'Gewerbliche Frauenarbeit'; 'Exclusion of women'; Stockmann, Burdy et al., 'R6les, travauxet metiers'. A useful surveyof women's work in 'Frauenlohnarbeit'; women'swork'. can be foundin Fout, 'Working-class Germany

624

KATRINA HONEYMAN AND JORDAN GOODMAN

In recent years it has become clear that such periods of transition in as the and Europeanhistory the Reformation, industrial revolution, the rise of of capitalism of limited are relevance historians women'swork.98 to While the of industrialization affected structure the genderdivisionof labour, it was not responsiblefor instigating women's subordinateposition in the labour market. The mostprofitable current approachto an analysisof thissubordination stemsfromHartmann's discussionof the relationship between pathbreaking and two patriarchy capitalism.She identified systems underlying pattern the of women's work-the economicand what has been called the sex-gender system.99 Historically, thesesystems haveinteracted, sometimes opposition in and confrontation, othersin unison,to createa specific at genderdivision of labour. Economic forcesinfluence the natureof women's employment withina particular sex-gender system. The sex-gender remain systemand its principalcomponent, patriarchy, in the backgroundso long as changeswithinthe economicsystemdo not impinge on the operationof the system.But when changes in women's of economic threaten upsettheequilibrium thesex-gender to position system, the responseof the patriarchal is component to establisha new set of rules the acceptable gender division of labour in the workplace.The defining historical momentous betweenthesesystems have episodes of confrontation been fewbut protracted. Only two have occurredbetweenthe middle ages and the twentieth century. One of the main conclusionsto emergefromrecentpublicationsis that female work patterns and domestic preoccupations-the dialectic of productionand reproduction-were not solely or primarilydetermined betweenpatriarchy and by economic forcesbut by complex relationships economic materialism.Pleas for furtherresearch into the nature and are operationof patriarchy commonplace,but it must be emphasizedthat should be examined within historically patriarchy specificsituations.1?? The mostrewarding theseare likelyto be majorperiodsof confrontation of when actions determinedby patriarchywere most clearly revealed.101 There may indeed be, as Bennett suggests, 'many histories of many of patriarchies',102but this would not precludethe identification the most
98 See the comments 'Women's work'; Bennett, by Thomas, 'Women and capitalism';also Shorter, 'Historythatstandsstill'. 99Hartmann, 'Capitalism, patriarchy'. also Neuschel,'Review'; Seccombe,'Patriarchy See stabilized'; Rose, ' "Genderat work" ', pp. II 9-20; Howell, Women, production, 27-46, I78-83; Walby,Patriarchy pp.

at work, pp. 5-69.

production. See also n.99 above as well as Davis, 'Women in the crafts',pp. 7I-2; Rose, 'Gender is segregation', I78-80; Hilden, 'Class and gender'.One well-discussed pp. exception Stone,Family,sex and marriage, I5I-2i8. See also Hanley, 'Family and state'. pp. 101Bennett,'Feminism',pp. 263-4. 102 Ibid., p. 262.

pp. 22-37. The mostrecent historical workwhichstresses thisapproachcan be foundin Howell, Women,

100 The best discussionof the troublewith patriarchy be found in Walby, Patriarchy work, can at

WOMEN S WORK IN EUROPE,

I500-I900

625

of salientfeatures patriarchal forces and thedeconstruction the sex-gender of system. University Leeds of Institute Scienceand Technology University Manchester of of

Footnote references Secondary sources workin nineteenth-century London:a study the Alexander,S., Women's of yearsi820-50 (I983). thatstandsstill:women'sworkin theEuropeanpast', Feminist Bennett, J.M., 'History Stud., xiv (I988), & Gender Hist., I (I989), pp. 25I-72. Bennett,J.M., 'Feminismand history', in Bennett,J.M., Women themedieval Englishcountryside (New York, I987). Berg, M., The age of manufactures, I700-i820 (I985). and the early phases of industrialization England', in Berg, M., 'Women's work, mechanization in P. Joyce,ed., The historical meanings work(Cambridge,I987), pp. 64-98. of Blau, F.D. and Jusenius,C.L., 'Economists'approachesto sex segregation the labor market:an in appraisal',Signs, I (I976), pp. i8i-99. class womenin nineteenth Boxer,M.J., 'Foyer or factory: working century France', Proc. Western Soc. FrenchHist., II (I975), pp. I92-206. Boxer, M.J., 'Women in industrial homework: flowermakers Paris in the Belle Epoque', French the of Hist. Stud., XII (I982), pp. 40I-23. the marginalization women workersin late Boxer M.J., 'Protective legislation of and home industry: nineteenth-century France',j. Soc. Hist., xx (i986), pp. 45-65. Boxer, M.J. and Quataert,J.H., eds., Connecting spheres (New York, I987). in R., Koonz, C., and Stuard, S., eds., Becoming visible:women Europeanhistory (Boston, Bridenthal, in Brown,J.C. and Goodman, J., 'Women and industry Florence',J. Econ. Hist., XL (1980), pp. 7380. et de Burdy,J.-P., Dubesset, M., and Zancarini-Fournel, 'R6les, travaux metiers femmes M., dans une ville industrielle: Saint-Etienne, I900-I950', Le Mouvement social, I40 (1987), pp. 27-53. trades Bythell,D., The sweated (I978). a labor market theories orthodox to J. Cain, G.G., 'The challengeof segmented theory: survey', Econ. Lit., XIV (1976), pp. I2I5-57. StoricoItaliana, cxx Carmona, M., 'Sull'economia toscana del cinquecentoe del seicento',Archivio (i962), pp. 32-46. in Clark, A., Working of women theseventeenth life century (i919). the Clarkson,L., Proto-industrialization:first phase of industrialization? (I985). male dominance technological and Cockburn,C., Brothers: change (1983). Cockburn,C., Machinery dominance of (1985). womengarment workers Berlinand Hamburgbeforethe in Dasey, R., 'Women's workand the family: FirstWorld War', in R.J. Evans and W.R. Lee, eds., The German on family: essays thesocial history and in of the family nineteenth twentieth century Germany (198I), pp. 22I-55. the of Davies, M., 'Woman's place is at the typewriter: feminization the clerical labor force', in Z. Eisenstein, and ed., Capitalism, patriarchy thecaseforsocialist feminism (New York, I978), pp. 24866. in Davis, N.Z., 'Women in the crafts sixteenth-century Lyon', Feminist Stud., viii (I982), pp. 47-80. De Vries, J.,Europeanurbanization, iSoo-i8oo (I984). women'sworkin imperial Hist. Eur. Ideas, 8 (1987), pp. 625-32. Fout, J.C., 'Working-class Germany', in Franzoi,B., ' ". . . Withthewolfalwaysat thedoor. . .": women'sworkin domestic industry Britain and Germany', M.J. Boxerand J.H. Quataert,eds., Connecting in (New York, I987), pp. I49spheres 54. mule: a studyof skilland the sexual division Freifeld, M., 'Technologicalchangeand the "self-acting" of labour', Soc. Hist., XI (i986), pp. 3I9-43. Freudenberger, H., Mather, F.J., and Nardinelli,C., 'A new look at the early factory labor force', j. Econ. Hist., XLIV (I984), pp. I085-90. au sicle (Paris, I975). Garden,M., Lyon et les lyonnais xviiieme George,D., Englandin transition (Harmondsworth, I93I).
I987). pp. 269-83.

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