Women at Work in Preindustrial France

Bibliographic Data

ID23164857
AuthorsDaryl M Hafter (corresponding author)
Year2007
Publication date2007-05-22
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueWomen at Work in Preindustrial France (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPenn State University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1515/9780271034799
OpenAlexW588086395
Open LibraryOL34822210M
ISBN9780271034799
LanguageEN
Citations received9

The subject of women as skilled workers in the eighteenth century is central to our understanding of the history of work and technology in the preindustrial age. While recent scholarship has dispelled the notion that women did not enter the workforce until the Industrial Revolution, debate continues as to the extent to which women actually participated in skilled work in the preceding decades. This book draws upon substantial archival research in Rouen, Lyon, and Paris to show that while the vast majority of working women in eighteenth-century France labored at unskilled, low-paying jobs, it was not at all unusual for women to be actively engaged in economic activities as workers, managers, and merchants. Some even developed vertically integrated wholesale and retail businesses, while others became indispensable to manufacturers through their technical skill. In fact, Hafter documents how certain women guild masters were able to exploit the legal system to achieve considerable economic independence, power, wealth, and legal parity with male masters. She also shows how gender politics complicated the day-to-day experience of these working women.

Geography · Work (physics) · Engineering · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Discrimination in employment · employment · France · Sex discrimination against women · Women · Women in guilds · Working class women

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