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Why we shouldn’t measure women’s labour force participation in pre-industrial countries

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  • Joyce Burnette

Abstract

Labour force participation was designed to measure contemporary labour markets, and does a poor job of measuring work, particularly women’s work, in the past. When we measure labour force participation we ignore production for household use, ignore differences in the intensity of work, and assume a continuity of employment that did not characterize most historical work. Therefore, I suggest that we should not use labour force participation to measure women’s work outside of modern, industrialized societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Joyce Burnette, 2021. "Why we shouldn’t measure women’s labour force participation in pre-industrial countries," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 422-427, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:36:y:2021:i:3:p:422-427
    DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2021.1929602
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    Cited by:

    1. Giuliana Freschi, 2023. "From the edge to the heart: female employment in 19th-century Italy," LEM Papers Series 2023/38, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Youssouf Merouani & Faustine Perrin, 2022. "Gender and the long-run development process. A survey of the literature [Rethinking age heaping: A cautionary tale from nineteenth-century Italy]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(4), pages 612-641.

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