Urban Working Women

Abstract

The modern gender order based on ‘separate spheres’ presupposed women’s economic dependence on men and their dedication to home and family. But the ‘domestic wife’ was unknown amongst the urban labouring population, where a ‘family economy’ based on production in the home generally prevailed. Artisanal and shopkeeping couples shared productive activities, although a sexual division of labour allowed women to combine their productive tasks with their household and childcare duties. From the early nineteenth century, however, changes in the broader economy were placing this household model of production under pressure. The family workshop was being undermined by factory production, and by competitive pressures that drove down earnings and forced both men and women into wage labour outside their homes. The family wage economy, based on the wage labour outside the home of all family members, began to replace the older pattern. These changes also disrupted women’s ability to combine income-earning and family responsibilities.