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

在世纪之前，妇女的经济贡献在很大程度上被掩盖了。关于经济增长和结构变化的叙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着男性工人、他们的工资和男性养家糊口的家庭。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世纪西班牙的研究证明了将研究扩展到新背景的价值，揭示了更大的工业部门并挑战了流行的叙述。法国和西班牙一样，遵循了与英国和美国截然不同的增长轨迹。尽管邻近英国，法国在工厂出现之前一直是农业国，直到世纪。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。调查妇女在法国工业化中的作用可以产生深刻的见解。研究不同的部门和经济结构可以揭示它们是如何影响女性参与的。在我的硕士论文中，我构建了一个新颖的面板，从三个国家的制造业普查中跟踪整个世纪的行业水平劳动力和工资。这些数据开辟了途径，研究以前未探索的动态过程和性别关系，在劳动力市场上的粒度水平。在我的硕士论文中，我专注于行业异质性和性别劳动份额参与。我发现，妇女构成了一个重要的制造业劳动力，特别是在早期工业化的行业。随着制造业的巩固，由于“男性主导”部门的兴起，妇女所占的份额有所下降。女性劳动力需求在她们普遍存在的地方上升，与男性相比，她们的工资提高了。在这一初步探索的基础上，我未来的博士项目旨在向前和向后延伸这一系列，回到18世纪世纪，直到今天。对于这样一个长期的探索来说，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。一个长期的小组研究将检查这在多大程度上是一个持久性的影响，从以前的世纪。最近的文献，如维克托盖伊关于第一次世界大战对女性劳动力参与的持久影响的著作，暗示了早期工业化和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.