Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:03:32.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Living Standards of Women in Prefamine Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Deborah Oxley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prefamine Irish living standards have proved enigmatic. They are intriguing because they hold the key to understanding the trajectory of economic development in the first half of the nineteenth century. They have remained elusive because of the paucity of available information. Using Australian data, this paper examines regional trends in Irish-born female convict heights, identifying divergent tendencies between west and east that left Ulster women the tallest in the land.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 28 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Recent Research In Anthropometric History , Summer 2004 , pp. 271 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2004 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baten, J., and Murray, J. E. (2000) “Heights of men and women in 19th-century Bavaria: Economic, nutritional, and disease influences.” Explorations in Economic History 37: 351–69.Google Scholar
Clarkson, L. A. (1985) “Population change and urbanisation, 1821–1911,” in Kennedy, L. and Ollerenshaw, P. (eds.) An Economic History of Ulster, 1820–1940. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Connell, K. H. (1950) The Population of Ireland, 1750–1845. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cousens, S. H. (1960) “Regional death rates in Ireland during the Great Famine, from 1846 to 1851.” Population Studies 13: 55–74.Google Scholar
Foster, R. F. (1989) Modern Ireland, 1600–1972. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Gandevia, B. (1977) “A comparison of the heights of boys transported to Australia from England, Scotland, and Ireland, c.1840, with later British and Australian developments.” Australian Paediatric Journal 13: 91–97.Google Scholar
Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons (1843) “Report of the commissioners appointed to take the census of Ireland for the year 1841,” in Irish University Press (IUP) Series of British Parliamentary Papers: Population. Shannon: IUP.Google Scholar
Grubb, F. (1999) “Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians, stature in British colonial America: Evidence from servants, convicts, and apprentices.” Research in Economic History 19: 139–203.Google Scholar
Horrell, S., and Oxley, D. (1999) “Crust or crumb? Intrahousehold resource allocation and male breadwinning.” Economic History Review 52: 494–522.Google Scholar
Horrell, S., and Oxley, D. (2000) “Work and prudence: Household responses to income variation in nineteenth-century Britain.” European Review of Economic History 4: 27–57.Google Scholar
Houston, R. A. (1992) The Population History of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, R. V. (1996) “The heights of rural-born English female convicts transported to New South Wales.” Economic History Review 49: 584–90.Google Scholar
Kennedy, L., Ell, P. S., Crawford, E. M., and Clarkson, L. A. (1999) Mapping the Great Irish Famine: A Survey of the Famine Decades. Dublin: Four Courts.Google Scholar
Kennedy, L., and Ollerenshaw, P., eds. (1985) An Economic History of Ulster, 1820–1940. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1985) “Stature and nutrition in the Habsburg monarchy: The standard of living and economic development.” American Historical Review 90: 1149–61.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1987) “The height and weight of West Point cadets: Dietary change in antebellum America.” Journal of Economic History 47: 897–927.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1992) “Toward an anthropometric history of African-Americans: The case of the free blacks of antebellum Maryland,” in Goldin, C. and Rockoff, H. (eds.) Strategic Factors in Nineteenth-Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 297–329.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1993a) “The secular trend in the biological standard of living in the United Kingdom, 1730–1860.” Economic History Review 46: 115–44.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1993b) “A Malthusian episode revisited: The height of British and Irish servants in colonial America.” Economic History Review 46: 768–82.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1999) “On the nature of the Malthusian threat in the eighteenth century.” Economic History Review 52: 730–48.Google Scholar
Le Roy Ladurie, E., Bernageau, N., and Pasquet, Y. (1969) “Le conscrit et l’sordinateur: Perspectives de recherches sur les archives militaires du XIXe siècle français.” Studi Storici 10: 260–308.Google Scholar
Mokyr, J. (1985) Why Ireland Starved: A Quantitative and Analytical History of the Irish Economy, 1800–1850. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Mokyr, J., and Ó Gráda, C. (1988) “Poor and getting poorer? Living standards in Ireland before the famine.” Economic History Review 41: 209–35.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., ed. (1988) Convict Workers: Reinterpreting Australia’s Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Johnson, P. (1997) “Health and welfare of women in the United Kingdom, 1785–1920,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: Chicago University Press: 201–49.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Oxley, D. (1993) “Living standards of women during the Industrial Revolution.” Economic History Review 46: 723–49.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Oxley, D. (1996) “Living standards of women in England and Wales, 1785–1815: New evidence from Newgate prison records.” Economic History Review 49: 591–99.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Shergold, P. (1982) “The height of British male convict children transported to Australia, 1825–1840, Part I and Part II.” Australian Paediatric Journal 18: 1–11.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Steckel, R. H. (1991) “Heights and living standards of English workers during the early years of industrialization, 1770–1815.” Journal of Economic History 51: 937–57.Google Scholar
Nicholas, S., and Steckel, R. H. (1997) “Tall but poor: Living standards of men and women in pre-famine Ireland.” Journal of European Economic History 26: 105–34.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1977) “Some aspects of nineteenth-century Irish emigration,” in Cullen, L. M. and Smout, T. C. (eds.) Comparative Aspects of Scottish and Irish Economic and Social History, 1600–1900. Edinburgh: Donald: 65–73.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1991) “The heights of Clonmel prisoners, 1845-9: Some dietary implications.” Irish Economic and Social History 18: 24–33.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1995) Ireland before and after the Famine. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1999) Black ’s47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C., and O’sRourke, K. (1997) “Migration as disaster relief: Lessons from the great Irish famine.” European Review of Economic History 1: 3–25.Google Scholar
Oxley, D. (1996) Convict Maids: The Forced Migration of Women to Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Riggs, P. (1994) “The standard of living in Scotland, 1800–1850,” in Komlos, J. (ed.) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development: Essays in Anthropometric History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 60–75.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, L. (1998) The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World. Boston: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar