Women at Work in Preindustrial France

Daryl M. Hafter

Published by Penn State University Press 2007

Women at Work in Preindustrial France

Daryl M. Hafter

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271034799

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Hafter Daryl M. :

Daryl M. Hafter is Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University. She is the editor of European Women and Preindustrial Craft (1995).

Reviews

“This is the first full-length study of women in all-female and mixed guilds in Old Regime France. . . . Hafter contributes a great deal to our understanding of gender and the gendering of work, of the function of women’s work in patriarchal society, of the agency women held in early modern France to control their work, of the ways this control brought women into the public sphere of the old regime, and of the ways ideas about gender and work changed over the eighteenth century and into the Revolution.”
—Clare H. Crowston, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Political Economy of Guilds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. The Uses of Gender in Economic Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3. Guildwomen and Ouvrières Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4. Turgot’s Reforms and Their Aftermath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
5. Paths to the Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 328
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 12
- Images: 12
- Tables: 2
- Other: 12 illustrations
Keywords: women; work; Preindustrial France; Hafter; technology; Industrial Revolution; workers; managers; economics; Rouen; Lyon; Paris; merchants; reatil; business; wholesale; power; wealth; legal party; gender politics

eBook

Published: April 24, 2007
ISBN: 9780271034799