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RECONSIDERING THE SOUTHERN EUROPEAN MODEL: MARITAL STATUS, WOMEN'S WORK AND LABOUR RELATIONS IN MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PORTUGAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2020

Filipa Ribeiro da Silva  and
Hélder Carvalhal
Filipa Ribeiro da Silva
Affiliation:
International Institute of Social History—Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciencesa
Hélder Carvalhal
Affiliation:
University of Évorab
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Abstract

Challenging current ideas in mainstream scholarship on differences between female labour force participation in southern and north-western Europe and their impact on economic development, this article shows that in Portugal, neither marriage nor widowhood prevented women from participating in the labour market of mid-eighteenth-century. Our research demonstrates that marriage provided women with the resources they needed to work in various capacities in all economic sectors.

This article also argues that single Portuguese women had an incentive to work and did so mostly as wage earners. Finally, the comparison of our dataset on female occupations from tax records with other European cases calls for a revision of the literature and the development of a more nuanced picture of the north-south divide.

Resumen

RESUMEN

Desafiando la historiografía actual sobre las diferencias entre la participación femenina en los mercados laborales del noroeste y del sur de Europa y su impacto en el desarrollo económico, este artículo muestra que ni el matrimonio ni la viudez impidieron las mujeres de participaren en la economía portuguesa de mediados del XVIII. El matrimonio proporcionó a las mujeres los recursos necesarios para trabajar en en diversas capacidades.

Este artículo sostiene también que las solteras tenían un incentivo para trabajar, y lo hacían como asalariadas. Finalmente, la comparación de nuestros datos de ocupaciones femeninas con otros casos europeos muestra que la literatura requiere una revisión y el desarrollo de una imagen más matizada de la división norte-sur.

Keywords

women's workmarital statusoccupational structurelabour relationseighteenth-century-PortugalN3N30N33N93Trabajo femeninoEstado civilEstructura ocupacionalRelaciones laboralesPortugal-siglo XVIII
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 38 , Special Issue 1: Economic history of Portugal , March 2020 , pp. 45 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2020

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Footnotes

a

Research Department, International Institute of Social History – Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands. filipa.ribeirodasilva@iisg.nl

b

CIDEHUS: Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Culture and Societies, Évora, Portugal. helderfmcarvalhal@gmail.com

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