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Off the Record: Reconstructing Women's Labor Force Participation in the European Past

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  • Jane Humphries
  • Carmen Sarasúa

Abstract

Conventional histories of women's labor force participation in Europe conceptualize the trends in terms of a U-shaped pattern. This contribution draws on historical research to challenge such an account. First, it demonstrates that the trough in participation is in part statistically manufactured by uncritical reliance on official sources that systematically undercount women workers. Second, it exploits nonstandard sources to construct alternative estimates of women's participation. Third, it analyzes the reconstructed rates to determine their congruence with neoclassical economics and modern empirical studies. Not all posited relationships time travel. Supply-side factors such as marital status and number and age of children are major determinants of modern women's decision to enter the labor force, yet appear less prominent in historical contexts. Instead, the demand for labor seems decisive. Finally, the U-shaped curve is not entirely a statistical artifact, but appears to evolve at higher levels of participation than usually suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane Humphries & Carmen Sarasúa, 2012. "Off the Record: Reconstructing Women's Labor Force Participation in the European Past," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 39-67, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:18:y:2012:i:4:p:39-67
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2012.746465
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Humphries,Jane, 2010. "Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521847568, January.
    2. Vries,Jan de, 2008. "The Industrious Revolution," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521719254, January.
    3. Barker, Hannah, 2006. "The Business of Women: Female Enterprise and Urban Development in Northern England 1760-1830," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199299713.
    4. Vries,Jan de, 2008. "The Industrious Revolution," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521895026, January.
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    3. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2023. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2023-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    4. Swamy, Vighneswara & B K, Tulasimala, 2013. "Women Financing and Household Economics," MPRA Paper 50351, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Gary, Kathryn, 2019. "The distinct seasonality of early modern casual labor and the short durations of individual working years: Sweden 1500-1800," Lund Papers in Economic History 189, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    6. Maria Stanfors & Frances Goldscheider, 2017. "The forest and the trees: Industrialization, demographic change, and the ongoing gender revolution in Sweden and the United States, 1870-2010," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(6), pages 173-226.
    7. Molinder, Jakob, 2022. "Historical roots of the dual-earner model: Women’s labour force participation in Sweden, 1870–1960," Lund Papers in Economic History 244, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    8. Benjamin Schneider, 2023. "Technological unemployment in the British industrial revolution: the destruction of hand spinning," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _207, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
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    11. Tommy Bengtsson & Martin Dribe, 2014. "The historical fertility transition at the micro level," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(17), pages 493-534.
    12. Zagel, Hannah & Van Winkle, Zachary, 2022. "Women’s Family and Employment Life Courses Across Twentieth-Century Europe: The Role of Policies and Norms," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 446-476.
    13. Brea-Martinez, Gabriel, 2021. "The beneficial impact of mother’s work on children’s absolute income mobility, Southern Sweden (1947-2015)," SocArXiv c27s8, Center for Open Science.
    14. Pilar Beneito & José J. Garcia-Gómez, 2022. "Gender Gaps in Wages and Mortality Rates During Industrialization: The Case of Alcoy, Spain, 1860–1914," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 114-141, January.
    15. Álvarez, Begoña & Palencia, Fernando Ramos, 2018. "Human capital and earnings in eighteenth-century Castile," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 105-133.
    16. Strenio, Jacqueline & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2023. "Integrating Gender into a Labor Economics Class," IZA Discussion Papers 15886, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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