Desperate Housewives? The Adaptive Family Economy and Female Participation in the Roman Urban Labour Market

Bibliographic Data

ID20057768
AuthorsMiriam J Groen-Vallinga (corresponding author)
Year2013
Pages295-312
Publication date2013-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueWomen and the Roman City in the Latin West (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/9789004255951_016
OpenAlexW2481159317
ISBN9789004255951
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This chapter introduces the model of the adaptive family economy as developed by the historical demographer Richard Wall in 1986. It will be argued that this model has particular explanatory value for the Roman family; it can incorporate and predict the widely differing attestations of working women slave, freed and free within the dynamic context of the family, in this way furthering our understanding of women's socioeconomic position in Roman society. The chapter provides a closer analysis of the origins and the reality of the ideal image of women, and explains how it influences women's position on the labour market. Then, it locates women firmly within the family as an economic unit and introduces the adaptive family economy as a model for analysing the family's economic strategies. In the final section of the chapter, the model of the adaptive family economy are tested against the ancient evidence. Keywords:adaptive family economy; economic strategies; female labour participation; housewife; Roman urban labour market

Adaptive strategies · Economics · Economy · Family economy · Geography · Housewife · Labour economics · Market economy · Political science · Population · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Gender Studies · Psychology

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