The last generation of dairymaids: gender, skill, and occupational identity in Sweden

ABSTRACT

The history of the gender division of labor in the Swedish dairy industry differs from its course elsewhere in Western Europe and in North America. When milk processing was centralized and mechanized, skilled dairy work remained in the hands of women. When the industry consolidated during the interwar period, however, the occupation underwent a rapid process of masculinization at the same time that the work was deskilled and demanded less bodily toil. How did dairymaids respond to this shift? This article analyzes the autobiographies of the last generation of Swedish dairymaids who entered the occupation when it was regarded as womanly. In their education and careers, they developed a strong occupational identity and retained their sense of the dignity, value, and womanliness of their skilled labor. Ultimately, however, they were unable to defend their collective position when the employers transformed the gender division of labor while restructuring the entire industry.

KEYWORDS:

• gender division of labor
• gender, skill and technology
• dairy industry
• rural women
• Sweden

Acknowledgments

This project would not have been possible without my close collaboration with Lena Sommestad. I am grateful to Ida Särabrand and Lena Gyltman at Västergötlands Museum for their assistance with this archive of recollections and photographs. Historians and sociologists at the Rural Women’s Studies Association and the European Rural History Organisation provided helpful feedback on earlier versions of this analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Margreet van der Burg and Liskje Flapper, whose work is not yet published, have found that the situation in the Netherlands was more complex, with substantial variations among regions and products.

2. The idea that the notion of skill is gendered was advanced by Baron (1983); Cockburn (1983); Milkman (1987); and Phillips and Taylor (1980). This theory developed as a critical response to Braverman (1974), which argued that the deskilling of work and the feminization of the labor force were closely intertwined. Although this model was consistent with the history of textile manufacturing, it was at variance with the development of the gender division of labor in other industries and sectors, including agriculture and agricultural processing. Ulla Wikander, who studied the Swedish confectionary industry, emphasized the connection between deskilling and the substitution of women for men, but she also noted that women were employed in tasks that remained unmechanized.

3. Throughout the interwar period, the unskilled proportion of the dairy industry’s labor force rose markedly and was masculinized at the same pace as the skilled employees. In 1913, 72 percent of the 1800 helpers and laborers were women. In 1927, these unskilled workers, like their supervisors, were equally divided between women and men. Thereafter, men increasingly outnumbered women. By 1930, 57 percent were men, and by 1939, 77 percent of the 3500 unskilled workers were men. Sommestad (2019), p. 44.

4. Cockburn (1983) argued that male employers and supervisors may form alliances with skilled male workers based on shared notions of masculinity to create or uphold an unequal gender division of labor and gender differentials in earnings. See also Baron (1983).