I was asked this week if women more economically valued and independent in preindustrial, pre-capitalist Europe than they were afterwards? Although I may not be able to give a definitive yes or no answer to this question, I will try to illuminate women’s economic roles in early modern Europe and allow you to draw your own conclusion to this question. I would also like to invite you to share your thoughts in the comments.
Understanding how people in early modern Europe thought about work is important, especially as trades became more specialized during this period and certain types of work were seen as being reserved for specific groups. Unless you were in that group you were excluded from participating in such work if there was profit to be made. Men tended to see their work as a way of protecting their status, honor and reputation as the head of the household, while women saw their work as a means to govern industry as independent women. Work from a woman’s perspective was reflective of something they did instead of reflecting their identity.
A women’s work changed over the course of her life cycle because all women were “understood to be married or to be married” (Weisner, 2019, 113). So, she might start out as a servant for example until she gets married and begins her unpaid reproductive work while working under her husband to support his business. Essentially a woman’s work was perceived as being supplementary to her husband.
Guilds played a key role in women’s exclusion from the work force. They were almost exclusively operated by and for men. Women were rarely members unless under very exceptional or temporary circumstances; however, there Broomhall has uncovered cases of female exclusive guilds in the 15th and 16th centuries. Guilds recognized that women were essential to the household and thus, their work was domestic, but their laws often excluded women from working in guild shops. Guild members needed women in order to operate a profitable business and many chose to ignore the rules because they could pay women less for their labor (a problem that still exists today).
Women had been relegated to working on the economic margins of society for centuries, but in 1675 Louis XIV established a Parisian seamstresses’ guild. Crowston discusses the two gendered definitions of work, honor, and status from the contradictory views of men and women of the seamstresses’ and tailors’ guilds. For women “guild membership provided a means of escaping form the patriarchal family and its constraints” (Crowston, 2000, 369b) because these female exclusive guilds offered autonomy, honor and a powerful status. These women developed a sense of value for their labor and honor by pioneering for change against the social, cultural, and legal confines they found themselves in. In a way, these women were advocates who fought to change the perspective and understanding of their economic roles and value in society.
Women today are still devalued and challenged with gendered wage gaps. This short video “Women: Pretty Cheap Labor” is one example of how women today are still fighting for equal rights.
So, let go back to the original question now… were women more economically valued and independent in preindustrial, pre-capitalist Europe than they were afterwards?
Reference:
- Broomhall, Susan. “The Fragility of Women’s Rights: How Female Guilds Wielded Power Long Ago.” The Conversation, March 7, 2017. https://theconversation.com/the-fragility-of-womens-rights-how-female-guilds-wielded-power-long-ago-73265.
- Crowston, Claire. “Engendering the Guilds: Seamstresses, Tailors, and the Clash of Corporate Identities in Old regime France,” French Historical Studies 23 (2000): 339-371
- Crowston, Clare. “Women, Gender, and Guilds in Early Modern Europe: An Overview of Recent Research.” International Review of Social History 53, no. S16 (2008): 19–44. doi:10.1017/S0020859008003593.
- Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 112-158.
- ​*​(Crowston, 2008)
