Female Masters in the Ribbonmaking Guild of Eighteenth-Century Rouen

Parmi les passementeries galantes, le ruban est apparement le plus vertueux et le plus convenable [Within genteel passementerie, ribbon is apparently the most virtuous and the most decorous.] ' The analysts of classic passementerie who wrote those words did not go far enough, for virtue was a characteristic not only of the ribbons used as embellishment in a past age. No less deserving of praise were the work ethic and self-advancement of the ribbonmakers. This article will show how a group of tradeswomen in eighteenth-century Rouen managed to overcome disadvantages widely restrictive of female workers on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. By examining the structure of the ribbonmakers' guild, the legal procedures under which they found access to the market, and the benefits of their guild membership to their families, we will better understand the dignity and social stature accorded working women in public life at the end of the eighteenth century.2 For good reason, historians have not presented women's work as enviable, profitable activity undertaken with lifetime commitment. Most women workers, like their male counterparts, performed lowpaid, unskilled jobs. Even more than men, women changed their occupations in response to altered marital status or changed economic pressures.3 However, a small number of women in pre-Revolutionary France

Ancient history · Biology · Guild · Political science · Ecology · European Political History Analysis · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History

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