Women’s work in England and Wales 1600-1914 Dr Frances Richardson frances.richardson@conted.ox.ac.uk http://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/series/womans-work-never-done- womens-work-england-and-wales-1600-1914

Course aims and objectives AIM - to study the changing nature of women’s work from 1600 to 1914 in a variety of sectors and regions, to understand the social and economic factors that influenced women’s economic roles. OBJECTIVES To gain a knowledge and understanding of the changing nature of women’s work in the period 1600-1914. To examine the social and economic factors that influenced women’s economic roles. To be able to evaluate recent scholarly debates.

Overview Overview, the changing nature of women’s work The seventeenth-century household economy Women in agriculture Pre-industrial manufacturing The Industrial Revolution – textiles Other industries Domestic servants Sweated trades Women entrepreneurs White collar work and the ‘new woman’

Resources Borrowing books – Continuing Education Library, Rewley House: www.Bodleian.ox.ac.uk/conted SOLO to search for books Online resources – articles and Bodleian e-books via computers in Student Resource Room or Conted Library, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ for OU e-Journals Course website: http://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/series/womans- work-never-done-womens-work-england-and-wales-1600-1914

Assessment Portfolio of 3 to 5 short pieces of work total up to 1500 words, based on class preparation questions OR One essay 1500 word essay – some suggested topics or agree topic with Frances. Feedback can be sought on essay outline before end of term Deadline for submitting written work 7 April Mark and feedback by 21st April

Overview, the changing nature of women’s work Types of work Women’s wages Influences on women’s work and wages Key phases

Types of work Paid Unpaid Production for sale Production for home consumption

Wages – unskilled women & men Source: Humphries & Weisdorf, 2015

The gender wage gap Source: Humphries & Weisdorf 2015

Influences Ideology and legal rights Women’s domestic responsibilities Division of labour and specialization Trade and economic growth Industrialization and the growth of capitalism Population growth Education

Ideology and legal Women defined in relation to fathers and husbands Married women lacked property rights till 1870 17c - Work as social obligation of wives and daughters - Statute of Artificers and Elizabethan Poor Laws 18c - Praise of industriousness - Men ‘rational’, women ‘traditional’ - professionalization 19c - Woman’s place in the home, moral concerns - Legal restrictions – 1842 Mines Act Late-19c - marriage bars

Women’s domestic responsibilities David Cox, Cottage interior, Trossavon near Bettws y coed (1844-7), Birmingham Museums Trust ‘Though husbandry seemeth to bring in the gains, yet huswifery labours seem equal in pains’ (Thomas Tusser, 1573) Childcare Cooking, food preserving Cleaning Laundry Fetching water, fuel Spinning for home use Making clothes

Division of labour and specialization Growth of markets for goods and services Decline of household economy More work located outside the home Increased gender segregation John Cranch, The village baker (1751-1821) Royal Albert Memorial Museum

Trade and economic growth Source: Broadberry et al., 2015

Population growth

Industrialization and capitalism

Education

Phases Household economy Proto-industry – industry before the factory Industrialization, growth of wage labour Rise of domestic ideology and male breadwinner norm Increased white collar jobs for women – the ‘New Woman’

The male breadwinner and the family wage Growing separation of work and home The domestic ideology – A woman’s place is in the home Home-making more important than wage earning Victorian moral concerns about women working outdoors or with men After 1850, increased pressure for men to earn a family wage Phillip Morris (1836-1902), The Breadwinner, Wolverhampton Art Gallery

DISCUSSION Why might working women have been praised for their industriousness in the 18th century but condemned for working outside the home in the 19th?

Prep for week 2 Discussion topic: What role did housewives and/or unmarried female servants play in the seventeenth century? Reading: * Alice Clark ‘Working Life of Women in the seventeenth Century’ (1917) (The Internet Library: https://archive.org/details/texts ) Especially Introductory, pp. 5-12, and Conclusion, pp. 290-296. * Gervaise Markham, Countrey Contentments, or the English Huswife (1615) (The Digital Library, http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:heh898zor) – dip into this. Jane Whittle, ‘The house as a place of work in early modern rural England’, Home Cultures (2011), pp. 133-150. (Online in Resources room or Continuing Education Library - http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/, OU e-Journals, Home Cultures.) 2 hard copies for loan. Jane Whittle, ‘Enterprising widows and active wives: Women's unpaid work in the household economy of early modern England’, History of the Family, vol. 19, no. 3, (2014), pp. 283-300. (Online in Resources room or Continuing Education Library - http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/, OU e-Journals, History of the Family). 2 hard copies for loan. Ann Kussmaul, Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 1981) (Continuing Education Library), especially pp. 31-42. 2 hard copied for laon.