‘The Best Job in the World’: Breadwinning and the Capture of Household Labor in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century British Coalmining

Abstract

This article explores the effects of gender inequality and women's disempowerment in the context of historical coalmining. Across the United States and Europe, ex-coalmining regions are characterized by significant deprivation. While there are many reasons for persistent problems, this study focuses on the restrictions imposed on women's involvement in economic life. Families in mining communities exemplified the male breadwinner structure, in which men's earnings supported wives and children who provided domestic services in return. Using evidence from Britain, this article exposes a different reality of household economics characterized by dominance and subordination: All family members were integrated into the coalmining production process and the creation of profit. Women's unpaid work did not simply provide domestic comfort; it transferred well-being from women and children to men and simultaneously contributed to the colliery companies' profits. These findings revise accounts of mining families while explaining the intransigence of deprivation in ex-coalmining areas.

Analysis of Residents’ Livelihoods in Transformed Shantytowns: A Case Study of a Resource-Based City in China

“…Thirdly, the regression results show that gender and age have positive effects on whether or not to engage in coal mining-related industry strategies. One of the reasons why coal mining areas have long been characterized by high levels of poverty leading to the formation of shantytowns is that women's participation in economic activities is severely limited, with the majority of females working as unpaid domestic servants and males earning income from the mining industry to support their families in the coal mining communities [87]. Female exclusion from mining jobs remains unchanged, and the employment environment for females has not improved significantly, despite the drastic changes in the living conditions of the inhabitants in the study area.…”

The Past and Future of Work: How History Can Inform the Age of Automation

“…The origins of spatial inequality could be observed over the long-term, which may yield insights that the more short-term view could miss. Historical analysis also incorporates the social and cultural underpinnings of long-run deprivation, which may intersect with technological change (Humphries and Thomas 2023).…”