Mapping Women's Labour History - 18th Century till 21st Century France

在20世纪之前，女性的经济贡献在很大程度上仍然被掩盖。对经济增长和结构转变的描述很少涉及妇女的工作和条件。经济史上的工业化叙事主要围绕男性工人、他们的工资和男性养家糊口的家庭展开。然而，像戈尔丁、汉弗莱斯和霍雷尔这样的经济学家最近通过揭示女性的角色来纠正这种疏忽（Burnette, 1997; Goldin & Sokoloff, 1982; Horrell & Humphries, 1995; Humphries & Schneider, 2019; Sarasua, 2019）。通过长期参与和工资分析，他们量化了妇女对家庭和宏观经济发展的影响。然而，研究差距仍然存在，特别是在“盎格鲁-撒克逊世界”之外。萨拉苏阿2019年对18世纪西班牙的研究体现了将研究扩展到新背景、揭示更大的工业部门和挑战主流叙事的价值。法国和西班牙一样，遵循着与英国和美国截然不同的增长轨迹。尽管离英国很近，但法国一直是农业国，直到19世纪工厂出现。正如Goldin & Sokoloff（1982）和Humphries & Schneider（2019）所指出的那样，女性对原始工业劳动密集型制造业做出了重大贡献。调查女性在法国工业化中所扮演的角色可能会带来一些启示。审查不同的部门和经济结构可以揭示它们如何影响妇女的参与。在我的硕士论文中，我构建了一个新颖的面板，通过三个国家的制造业人口普查来追踪19世纪的行业劳动力和工资水平。这些数据为研究劳动力市场中以前未被探索的动态过程和性别关系开辟了途径。在我的硕士论文中，我关注的是行业异质性和性别劳动份额参与。我发现女性是制造业劳动力的重要组成部分，尤其是在早期的工业化工业中。随着制造业的固化，由于“男性主导”部门的兴起，女性的比例下降。在女性劳动力普遍存在的地方，女性劳动力需求上升，提高了她们的工资水平。在这个初步探索的基础上，我未来的博士项目旨在向前和向后扩展这个系列，回到18世纪和现在。对于这样的长期探索来说，法国是一个有趣的地方。与其直接邻国相比，法国一直保持着较高的女性参与率。一个长期的小组探索将检验这在多大程度上是前几个世纪的持续影响。最近的文献，如维克多·盖伊（Victor Gay）关于第一次世界大战对女性劳动力参与的持久影响的研究，暗示了早期工业化与现代女性工作结构之间的联系。我的目标是揭示这些联系，追溯女性工作和工资的历史根源。

Before the 20th century, the economic contributions of women remained largely concealed. Accounts of economic growth and structural shifts seldom addressed women's work and conditions. Industrialization narratives in economic history predominantly revolved around male workers, their wages, and male-breadwinner families. However, economists like Goldin, Humphries, and Horrell have recently rectified this oversight by shedding light on women's roles (Burnette, 1997; Goldin & Sokoloff, 1982; Horrell & Humphries, 1995; Humphries & Schneider, 2019; Sarasua, 2019). Through long-term participation and wage analyses, they quantified the impact of women on households and macroeconomic development. Yet, research gaps persist, particularly outside the "Anglo-Saxon world." Sarasua's 2019 study on 18th-century Spain exemplifies the value of expanding research into new contexts, revealing a larger industrial sector and challenging prevailing narratives.France, like Spain, followed a distinct growth trajectory from Britain and the United States. Despite its proximity to England, France remained agrarian until the 19th century, when factories emerged. Women significantly contributed to proto-industrial labor-intensive manufacturing, as noted by Goldin & Sokoloff (1982) and Humphries & Schneider (2019). Investigating women's role in French industrialization could yield insights. Examining different sectors and economic structures could reveal how they affected women's participation.For my master's thesis, I constructed a novel panel tracking industry-level labor and wages across the 19th century from three national manufacturing censuses. This data opens up avenues to study previously unexplored dynamic processes and gender relations in the labor market on a granular level. In my master's thesis, I focused on heterogeneity in industry and gender labor share participation. I found that women constituted a substantial manufacturing workforce, particularly in early industrializing industries. As manufacturing solidified, women's share decreased due to the rise of "male-dominated" branches. Female labor demand rose where they were prevalent, boosting their wages compared to men's.Building on this initial exploration, my future PhD project aims to extend the series both forward and backward, back into the 18th century and into the present day. France is an intriguing setting for such a long-term exploration. Compared to its direct neighbors, France has maintained a persistently high female participation rate. A long-term panel exploration would examine to what extent this is a persistence effect from earlier centuries. Recent literature, such as Victor Gay's work on World War I's enduring impact on female labor force participation, implies a link between early industrialization and modern structures of women's work. I aim to uncover these connections, tracing the historical roots of women's work and wages.