Padavic Flashcards
preindustrial Western societies how was labour distributed?
Almost everyone worked
Most people devoted their lives to feeding and housing themselves
How did women work in preindustrial western societies?
Did meals, and helped in fields in the afternoon
Did men and women’s work overlap?
women’s and men’s tasks overlapped, although the sexual division
of labor defined cooking, cleaning, and spinning as women’s work.
The jobs that women and men
usually did were seen as equally valuable, preindustrial agriculture was hardly a paradise of sex equality.
How was Manufacturing Work separated by gender?
(Before industrial revolution)
men in guilds and women in workshops (men out earning)
What were womens workshops?
Women’s Workshops. In medieval Europe, all-female workhouses existed in which female residents manufactured textiles.
For working they got a room
- Often slaves of nobles
- Or wives/children of slaves
- Serfs / or imprisoned here for crimes (prostitution)
What were men’s guilds?
the precursors of modern unions—controlled the apprenticeship systems through which artisans learned their craft.
What is the new institution: a labor
force with industrialization?
people who work for pay or actively seek paid work
The creation of the labor force split working people into three groups:
- Ppl who worked for a wage
- People looking for wage work
- unemployed
How did the industrial revolution create a distinction between men’s and women’s labour?
men to paid work and women to the unpaid work of running a household.
- Men support women and children
How did Protective labor laws impact women and children?
prohibited the employment of children and women for more than a specific number of
hours a day, from lifting more than specified weights, from working at night, and from holding certain jobs.
Which women were not working?
married women
Separate spheres, calls for separation
of family life from paid work.
It held that a woman’s proper place was in the home and not in the workplace,
a man’s natural sphere was not in the home; instead, it was in the world of
commerce (job)
What were the two responsibilities of married women ?
- creating a haven to which their husbands could retreat
from the world of work - demonstrating through their own nonemployment their husbands’ ability to support their families (being employed shows your husbands failings)
How has the separate spheres ideology contributed to gendering of modern work ?
- Assigned roles to men and women, but also gave them ways to win social approval (by fulfilling these roles)
- social values that encouraged employers to ban women from many jobs legitimized sex discrimination
- employers could justify low pay for women because men presumably supported them, and women’s economic dependence on men solidified men’s
authority in the family
Today: Which group has lower women’s participation rates in the world?
Western European Women
public policies encouraging women’s domestic roles
What is the informal sector?
small enterprises, the workers that these enterprises employ regularly, and casual workers with no fixed employment
Ex. small shop owners and street vendors
(Low pay and low conditions)
