Adapting To Capitalism: Working Women In The English Economy, 1700?1850 (studies In Gender History)

This book considers patterns of women's employment in the period 1700-1850. Focusing on the county of Essex, material on the worsted industry, agriculture, fashion trades, service, prostitution, and marriage and family life will shed light on contemporary debates in history such as the sexual division of labour, controversy over continuity or change in women's employment, the importance of ideas of 'separate spheres' and 'domestic ideology', and the overall effects of capitalism on women's employment. How did capitalism affect women's employment? Were there continuities or changes in the gender division of labour in the Industrial Revolution? Using previously unexploited material from poor law and court records, Pamela Sharpe examines these questions through the words of labouring women in Essex and in London. By both exploring connections between rural and urban areas of the economy and being aware of the need to consider custom and ideology, as well as economic factors, when explaining patterns of women's employment, she widens current debates within women's history. She stresses that a local and regional approach is essential to the study of economic change and that a full picture of industrialising Britain will not be complete without due consideration of women's role. Deliberately attempting to bridge the divide between studies of early modern and modern women, this book will appeal to historians, sociologists, geographers and anthropologists. How did capitalism affect women's employment? Were there continuities or changes in the gender division of labour in the Industrial Revolution? Using previously unexploited material from poor law and court records, Pamela Sharpe examines these questions through the words of labouring women in Essex and in London. By both exploring connections between rural and urban areas of the economy and being aware of the need to consider custom and ideology, as well as economic factors, when explaining patterns of women's employment, she widens current debates within womenOs history. She stresses that a local and regional approach is essential to the study of economic change and that a full picture of industrialising Britain will not be complete without due consideration of women's role. Deliberately attempting to bridge the divide between studies of early modern and modern women, this book will appeal to historians, sociologists, geographers and anthropologists. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Prologue: Making Shift....Pages 1-2 Introduction: Women Adapting to Capitalism....Pages 3-18 De-industrialisation and the Staple: The Cloth Trade....Pages 19-37 Re-industrialisation and the Fashion Trades....Pages 38-70 Agriculture: The Sexual Division of Labour....Pages 71-100 Shifts of Housewifery: Service as a Female Migration Experience....Pages 101-129 The Economics of Body and Soul....Pages 130-148 Epilogue: Economic Change and Women’s Status in the Past....Pages 149-153 Back Matter....Pages 154-226 Considering patterns of women's employment from 1700 to 1850, this text focuses on Essex to examine contemporary debates such as the sexual division of labour, continuity or change in women's employment, "separate spheres", "domestic ideology", and the effects of capitalism on women's employment.