To thrive, one must wive? Subsistence strategies of single women in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century rural Flanders

Abstract

In eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century rural Flanders the number of unmarried women rose, as they did in the rest of Western Europe. While previous studies of unmarried women mostly concentrated on urban dwellers, this contribution focuses on the coping strategies of unmarried women in two rural areas of the Franc of Bruges characterized by two different 'social agro-systems'. This concept aims to link the social, economic and demographic patterns with the geological characteristics and economic activities of a specific region. Based on two censuses, this article discusses the occupations of unmarried women, their household situations and their migration behaviour. The numbers show different outcomes for the two agro-systems, which validates the idea that the coping strategies of unmarried women were influenced by the region they were living in.

Lost in registration? Missing occupations of single women in the Bruges countryside, c.1814

“…Unmarried polder women were mainly employed as servants or as day labourers, while the majority of inland singles were listed as spinsters, and urban singles tended to be lace makers. These findings correspond with each of these regions' particular labour markets (De Langhe, 2012). While the 1814 census did list occupations for most of the single women, there was still a considerable percentage without.…”

“…We have already demonstrated elsewhere that these two social agro-systems generated quite disparate survival strategies for single females (De Langhe, Mechant, & Devos, 2011;De Langhe, 2012;De Langhe, 2013;De Langhe, in press). For instance, unwed women from inland Bruges could survive without seeking higher wages elsewhere through a combination of familial support, cottage industry employment, and poor relief.…”

“…14. For information on the living arrangements of the singles not living with relatives, we refer to our earlier article (De Langhe, 2012). From that analysis, it appeared that in the inland area 61% of the single women lived in the household of a family member.…”

“…Moreover, the nature of this mutual aid could vary according to the relation of the single woman to the head of the household. In the Bruges countryside, for example, a substantial portion of the unwed women living with a widowed mother had one or more illegitimate children in tow (De Langhe, 2012). 15 This suggests that there was no clear division between caregiving and economic tasks in this interdependent arrangement; the widowed mother offered both housing and childcare, while the unmarried daughter combined paid employment and domestic work.…”