Women's work and structural change: occupational structure in eighteenth‐century Spain

Abstract

This article uses the declarations of householders in the Cadaster of Ensenada to calculate labour participation rates for women and men from 22 localities in inland Spain. The article establishes the actual levels of women's market activity, which are much higher than commonly assumed. This unique source also makes it possible to analyse the region's occupational structure. Due to the labour-intensive character of manufacturing work, the abundant supply of cheap labour, the diffusion of cottage industries, and the demand for commodities from internal and colonial markets, a large portion of the region's population worked in manufactures in the eighteenth century. This finding challenges standard interpretations of the Spanish economy at this time as mostly agricultural, which rely on sources that exclude women workers. Most workers in the manufacturing sector were women, and their market activity was concentrated in textile manufacturing. Once women are included in the analyses, the industrial share of employment follows a U-shaped trajectory from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century. The article concludes that the standard interpretation of structural change, based solely on empirical evidence for male workers, gives a misleading picture of when, where, why, and how structural change occurred.

Reconsidering the Southern European Model: Marital Status, Women's Work and Labour Relations in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Portugal

“…Portugal is no exception so we experienced similar difficulties to those faced by any of our European colleagues wishing to study women's labour and economic activities in the early modern period (Van Nederveen Meerkerk 2006, 2012; Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013, 2014; Sarasúa 2019; among others).…”

“…Ranging between 48 and 23.6 per cent, the proportions were relatively lower in the central and southern provinces where seasonal agricultural labour predominated, especially of men from the northern inland provinces of Beira and Trás-os-Montes (see Appendix B3 online) 6 . Recent research on women's labour and occupational structures in the central and southern regions of Spain also identified low participation of women in the primary sector, although in the Spanish case women appeared heavily engaged in the secondary sector (Sarasúa 2019, pp. 15–16).…”

“…Since its publication, De Moor's and Van Zanden model has received a great deal of criticism for its failure to take into account regional variations and differences between rural and urban areas within southern Europe, where marriage patterns, family structures and systems of inheritance differed with consequent implications for female participation in the various economic regions of the vast Mediterranean Basin (Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013; Bellavitis and Zucca Micheletto 2018; Sarasúa 2019; among others).…”

Mercado de trabajo, género y especialización oleícola: Mallorca a mediados del siglo XVII

“…Los resultados más robustos sobre la participación de las mujeres en los mercados de trabajo agrario sugieren que su participación era menor que en los sectores manufacturero y servicios. En el sector agrario la segmentación del trabajo por sexos era mayor, y la ocupación femenina e infantil se concentraba en las operaciones menos cualificadas (Sharpe, 1995;Verdon, 2002;Ogilvie, 2003;Schmidt & Nederveen Meerkerk, 2012;Muñoz Abeledo, 2012;Hernández, 2013;Garrido, 2016;Sarasúa, 2019). Además, la demanda de trabajo asalariado agrícola presentaba una elevada estacionalidad que limitaba las posibilidades de convertirlo en una fuente de ingresos continuada para la mayoría de la población (Hindle, 2013;Gary, 2019).…”

Determinantes de la participación femenina en el mercado de trabajo en la Galicia rural y urbana de 1924

“…La literatura española sobre la participación femenina en el mercado de trabajo desde una perspectiva histórica ha sido prolífica en las últimas décadas. Estudios recientes recogen evidencias cuantitativas y cualitativas sobre el trabajo de las mujeres en la España preindustrial, tanto en la agricultura (Jover, Pujadas & Suau, 2017;Ortega, 2015) como en las manufacturas rurales (Martínez López & Martínez Martín, 2003;Sarasúa, 2000Sarasúa, , 2013Sarasúa, , 2019Garrido, 2016;Hernández García & Cubero, 2017) y también en los diferentes modelos de industrialización (Humphries & Sarasúa, 2012;Muñoz Abeledo, 2012a, 2012bMuñoz Abeledo, Taboada & Verdugo, 2015;Borderías, 2012Borderías, , 2013aBorderías, , 2013bBorderías & Ferrer, 2015, 2017Pérez-Fuentes, 1995;Campos, 2014;Borrás, 2012Borrás, , 2013Martínez Soto, 2013). Estas investigaciones han corregido el subregistro y recalculado la tasa de actividad para diferentes regiones e industrias en la España contemporánea (Gálvez Muñoz, 1997;Arbaiza, 2000Arbaiza, , 2002Camps, 1995Camps, , 1999Borderías, 2010aBorderías, , 2010bBorderías, , 2012Borderías, , 2013aBorderías, , 2013bBorderías & Ferrer, 2015;Pérez-Fuentes, 2003Pérez-Fuentes & Pareja, 2011;Martínez Martín & Moya, 2011;Muñoz Abeledo, 2012a…”