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Women’s Informal Market Work in Massachusetts, 1875–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Nancy Folbre
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Extract

Married women’s entrance into the market economy proceeded at a slow but steady pace between 1890 and 1910. That, at least, is the impression given by conventional census measures of the percentage with “gainful occupations,” which practically doubled in both the United States as a whole and in the heavily industrialized state of Massachusetts (see Table 1). This impression is misleading on at least two counts. Declines in self-reporting and enumerator bias may have overstated the increase in married women with gainful occupations. More important, dwindling opportunities for informal market activities, such as industrial homework, provision of services to boarders, and participation in a family farm or enterprise, may have countervailed increases in formal market participation. In Massachusetts, at least, married women’s specialization in non-market domestic labor probably increased.

Type
Special Section: Women and Labor
Information
Social Science History , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring 1993 , pp. 135 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1993 

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