Making verbs count: the research project ‘Gender and Work’ and its methodology

Abstract

While gender relations in the post-1800 labour market have been subject to much scholarly scrutiny, less is known about how women and men supported themselves in the early modern period. This article discusses the reasons for this lacuna and explores various approaches that could be used to increase knowledge in the field. It describes the verb-oriented method, used by the Gender and Work project at Uppsala University and inspired by the work of Sheilagh Ogilvie. Understanding ‘work’ as ‘use of time with the goal of making a living’, the method consists in systematic collection of verb phrases such as ‘to fish herring’, ‘to sell clothes’, etc. The article also presents the database GaW, which is designed so as to make possible systematic analysis of large sets of verb phrases.

Keywords:

• gender
• work
• time-use
• verb-oriented method
• early modern

Notes

1. Eva Österberg, ‘Bonde eller bagerska? Vanliga svenska kvinnors ekonomiska ställning under senmedeltiden: några frågor och problem’, Historisk tidskrift 100, no. 3 (1980): 281–97; Kekke Stadin, ‘Den gömda och glömda arbetskraften: stadskvinnor i produktion under 1600- och 1700-talen’, Historisk tidskrift 100, no. 3 (1980): 298–319.

2. Britta Lundgren, ‘“Det äro många postmästaränkor som sitta vid tjänsterna efter männen”: om postmästaränkor på 1600-talet’, Historisk Tidskrift 107, no. 1 (1987): 23–34; Anders Florén, Genus och producentroll: kvinnoarbete inom svensk bergshantering, exemplet Jäders bruk 1640–1840 (Uppsala: Historiska institutionen, Uppsala University, 1991); Per-Göran Johansson, ‘Gods, kvinnor och stickning: tidig industriell verksamhet i Höks härad i södra Halland ca 1750–1870’ (Dissertation, Lund: Lund University. 2001); Rosemarie Fiebranz, ‘Jord, linne eller träkol? Genusordning och hushållsstrategier, Bjuråker 1750–1850’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2002); Solveig Fagerlund, ‘Handel och vandel: vardagslivets sociala struktur ur ett kvinnoperspektiv: Helsingborg ca 1680–1709’ (Dissertation, Lund: Lund University, 2002); Sofia Ling, ‘Kärringmedicin och vetenskap: läkare och kvacksalverianklagade i Sverige omkring 1770–1870’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2004); Christine Bladh (ed.), Rodderskor på Stockholms vatten (Stockholm: Stockholmia, 2008).

3. Christina Florin, ‘Kampen om katedern: feminiserings– och professionaliseringsprocessen inom den svenska folkskolans lärarkår 1860–1906’ (Dissertation, Umeå: Umeå University, 1987); Ulla Wikander, ‘Kvinnoarbete och rationalisering: Gustavsbergs porslinsfabrik under mellankrigstiden’, Daedalus, 57 (1988): 9–21; Christer Ahlberger, ‘Vävarfolket: hemindustrin i Mark 1790–1850’ (Dissertation, Göteborg: Institutet för lokalhistorisk forskning, 1988); Göran Rydén, Hammarlag och hushåll: om relationen mellan smidesarbetet och smedshushållen vid Tore Petrés brukskomplex 1830–1850 (Stockholm: Jernkontoret, 1991); Christine Bladh, Månglerskor: att sälja från korg och bod i Stockholm 1819–1846 (Stockholm: Stockholmia, 1992); Inger Jonsson, ‘Linodlare, väverskor och köpmän: linne som handelsvara och försörjningsmöjlighet i det tidiga 1800-talets Hälsingland’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1994); Renée Frangeur, ‘Yrkeskvinna eller makens tjänarinna? Striden om yrkesrätten för gifta kvinnor i mellankrigstidens Sverige’ (Dissertation, Lund: Lund University, 1998); Lena Sommestad, Från mejerska till mejerist: en studie av mejeriyrkets maskuliniseringsprocess (Lund: Arkiv Förlag, 1992); Ulla Wikander, Kvinnoarbete i Europa 1789–1950 (Stockholm: Atlas, 1999); Lena Milton, ‘Folkhemmets barnmorskor: den svenska barnmorskekårens professionalisering under mellan- och efterkrigstid’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2001); Silke Neunsinger, ‘Die Arbeit der Frauen-die Krise der Männer: die Erwerbstätigkeit verheirateter Frauen in Deutschland und Schweden 1919–1939’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2001).

4. Janken Myrdal, Jordbrukets historia under feodalismen 1000–1700 (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1999), 309.

5. This research is vast and cannot be summarised in a footnote. For some interesting examples, see Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen, ‘Handicrafts as Professions and Sources of Income in Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Turku (Åbo): A Gender Viewpoint to Economic History’, Scandinavian Economic History Review XLVIII, no. 1 (2000): 40–63; Alex Shephard, ‘Property, Labour and the Language of Social Description in Early Modern England’, Past and Present 201, no. 1 (2008): 51–95; Tine De Moor and Jan Luiten van Zanden, ‘Girl Power: The European Marriage Pattern and Labour Markets in the North Sea Region in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period’, Economic History Review 63, no. 1 (2010): 1–33.

6. Kekke Stadin's well-documented study, Stånd och genus i stormaktstidens Sverige (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2004), gives valuable information on gender ideals of relevance to working life (for instance, the ubiquitous emphasis on industry [flit] in early modern Sweden), but says less about how work was actually carried out.

7. We prefer to use ‘work’ rather than ‘labour’ since, as we understand it, labour is usually conceptualized as paid work. For our project, ‘work’ is a better term since it covers both paid and unpaid activities.

8. See, for example, Wikander, Kvinnoarbete i Europa 1789–1950, 14.

9. David Landes, The Wealth and the Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some are so Poor (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999), 413.

10. See Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries and Ingrid Robeyns, ‘Exploring the Challenges of Amartya Sen's Work and Ideas: An Introduction’, Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003): 3–12, especially, p. 11, on development of the so-called Gender-Related Development Index and Gender Empowerment Index.

11. Ruth Hedlund, ‘Västerås befolkning vid slutet av 1600-talet: en socialhistorisk studie’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1980), 63.

12. Amy L. Erickson, ‘Coverture and Capitalism’, History Workshop Journal 59, no. 1 (2005): 1–16.

13. Sheilagh Ogilvie, A Bitter Living: Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

14. Maria Ågren, Dag Lindström, Erik Lindberg, Rosemarie Fiebranz, Sofia Ling, Linda Oja, Göran Rydén, Jonas Lindström, Jan Mispelaere, Christopher Pihl, Karin Hassan Jansson, Elisabeth Gräslund Berg and Benny Jacobsson. Additional doctoral student(s) and researchers will be recruited to the group.

15. A Wallenberg Scholar Grant was awarded to Maria Ågren for the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014. Additional funding was granted by The Swedish Research Council (Jonas Lindström), Söderbergs Stiftelse (Jan Mispelaere), the Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University (Göran Rydén), the Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University (Elisabeth Gräslund Berg), and the Department of History, Uppsala University (Christopher Pihl and Maria Ågren).

16. For example, in England the early modern period is considered to begin in the 1400s.

17. This project includes Ann Ighe, Inger Jonsson och Fredrik Sandgren and is financed by the Swedish Research Council.

18. For information on the U-shaped curve, see, for example, Margaret R. Hunt, Women in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Harlow: Longman, 2010), 168f. The question is whether or not the curve has been present at all in Sweden. See, for example, Klas Åmark, ‘Familj, försörjning och livslopp under 1900-talet’, in Familjeangelägenheter: modern historisk forskning om välfärdsstat, genus och politik, ed. Helena Bergman and Peter Johansson (Eslöv: Symposium, 2002), 236–78.

19. Cf. Anders Florén, ‘Nya roller, nya krav. Några drag i den svenska nationalstatens formering’, Historisk Tidskrift 107, no. 4 (1987): 505–29.

20. Margaret R. Hunt, The Middling Sort. Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England 1680–1780 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 131.

21. For instance, Carl Johan Gadd, Den agrara revolutionen 1700–1870 (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 2000).

22. Myrdal, Jordbrukets historia under feodalismen.

23. Jan Lindegren, ‘Utskrivning och utsugning. Produktion och reproduktion i Bygdeå 1620–1940’ (Dissertation, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1980); Jan de Vries, ‘The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution’, Journal of Economic History 54, no. 2 (1994): 249–70.

24. Vainio-Korhonen, ‘Handicrafts’.

25. See, for example, E. Anthony Wrigley, ‘Urban Growth and Agricultural Change: England and the Continent in the Early Modern Period’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 15, no. 4 (1985): 683–728. Wrigley presents here the idea behind PST and shows with numbers that a characteristic of early modern England was that a comparatively large part of the population either lived and made their livings in towns or lived in the countryside but supported themselves with something other than agriculture. The primary sector early became rather small (36% ca. 1800), while in a number of other European countries between 55 and 60% was needed to feed the whole population, often at a very low level. Before 1800, these percentages were still higher, which means that the primary sector was very large. Wrigley, ‘Urban growth’, 723.

26. Hunt, Middling, 130. About ten times as many occupations for men have been found than for women.

27. For an excellent example of this, see Myrdal, Jordbrukets historia under feodalismen, 310 on Åke Rålamb.

28. For an excellent discussion of the term ‘bonde’, see Thomas Lindkvist, ‘Bonden i lagen’, in Agrarhistoria på många sätt: 28 studier om människan och jorden: festskrift till Janken Myrdal på hans 60-årsdag, ed. Britt Liljewall (Stockholm: Kungl. Skogs- och Lantbruksakademin, 2009), 57–72.

29. Hunt, Women in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 172f.

30. Wrigley, ‘Urban Growth’, 697.

31. This does not mean that information on occupational titles lacks interest – quite the contrary. But occupational titles become interesting first when that kind of information can be compared with what people actually did to make their living.

32. Prostitution has been legal in certain places, for example in eighteenth-century Sevilla and Amsterdam, as well as in certain Polish and German cities. There is also information that indicates that it was regarded as legitimate, although illegal, work in other places. Hunt, Women in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 204–6.

33. See, for example, ‘Handlingar som tillhört kronofogden och borgmästaren Lars Månsson Pihlträ 1679–97’, Landskontoret, H III 3, Örebro länsstyrelses arkiv, Uppsala Landsarkiv. The master mason Anders Joensson received payment from the bailiff for masonry work completed on the barn at the Crown's estate Ulriksberg. His work crew included unnamed men and women who worked with carrying stone (the men) and stirring the mortar (the women).

34. Cf. Myrdal, Jordbrukets historia under feodalismen, 311f.

35. Christer Winberg, ‘Några anteckningar om historisk antropologi’, Historisk Tidskrift 108, no. 1 (1988): 1–29. Winberg had, in turn, borrowed the example with the spoons from Agneta Boqvist, ‘Den dolda ekonomin: en etnologisk studie av näringsstrukturen i Bollebygd 1850–1950’ (Dissertation, Lund: Lund University, 1978). A similar way of proceeding is found in Barbara A. Hanawalt, ‘Childrearing among the lower classes of late medieval England’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8, no. 1 (1977): 1–22. Hanawalt makes the source critical comment that people who worked at jobs that were accident prone tended to be mentioned especially often in the court records she used (p. 8).

36. Västerås Domkapitel 12 oktober 1633. Uppsala Landsarkiv.

37. We would like to thank Ingrid Almqvist, earlier at EParIT, Uppsala University, who was the one who made us aware of the centrality of the verb for our studies.

38. A.W. Carus and Sheilagh Ogilvie, ‘Turning Qualitative into Quantitative Evidence: A Well-used Method Made Explicit’, The Economic History Review, 62, no. 4 (2009): 893–925.

39. This is the impression of Maria Ågren, based on her experience from The Swedish Research Council and the European Science Foundation.

40. The system has been developed by Maria Larsson, Jimmy Ljungberg and Pär Vikström.

41. It can, however, be noted in the database if sex or civil status is unknown. This can be important if the source related that ‘a child’ or a group of people have done something: ‘… people on the farm went to the meadow to work.’

42. When the source states that several people have done something, without specifying the number, it is always registered as two people, according to the principle that it is better to under-register a phenomenon than to risk exaggerating its quantitative significance. If the exact number is given, then this, of course, is registered.

43. For information on HISCO, see http://historyofwork.iisg.nl.

44. An example is making charcoal, which in the occupational classification system HISCO is included as work within the chemical sector: Chemical Processors and Related Workers not Elsewhere Classified (749). Historians who study earlier periods of time would be more likely to classify it as work in the woods or as work associated with iron production.

45. We would like to thank John Rogers who suggested this solution.

46. Lagläsaren Per Larssons dombok 1638, ed. Nils Edling (Uppsala: Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Uppsala, 1937), 7f.

47. Lagläsaren Per Larssons dombok 1638, 55.

48. If only the activities of one man were recorded, this would lead to two activities in the database: one man bought fishing equipment and the same man sold herring. But since what the other man did is known, four activities are listed: buying fishing equipment, selling herring, selling fishing equipment, buying herring. It is necessary here to think about what happens when a scholar searches for something in the database and is interested in how many incidences there are, for example, of men selling fishing equipment. If two activities are not registered per person, the scholar will get an erroneous result from the search.

49. Please note that the activity ‘minding children’ is not something that comes en passant in this particular case, but rather is just the activity that draws the attention of the court and, as a result, becomes more difficult to judge from a source critical perspective. In the same case there are other activities that do appear en passant, such as parts of the story about how the child came to be injured.

50. For more information, see also Fiebranz, Jord, linne eller träkol, 247, note 252.

51. Ingrid Robeyns, ‘Sen's Capability Approach and Gender Inequality: Selecting Relevant Capabilities’, Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003): 80.

52. How those who did not fulfil the demands of the requirement to have employment or to be able to support themselves (laga försvar) actually supported themselves in the early nineteenth century is studied by Theresa Johnsson at the Department of History, Uppsala University, in an on-going doctoral research project.

53. The project coordinators are Rosemarie Fiebranz and Jonas Lindström.

54. The board includes the project coordinators plus Erik Lindberg and Maria Ågren.

55. The reference group consists of John Rogers, Department of History, Uppsala University; Sören Edvinsson, The Demographic Database, Umeå University; Linda Oja, Landsarkivet, Uppsala; Per-Anders Edin, Department of Economics, Uppsala University; Bengt Dahlqvist, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, and Joakim Nivre, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University.

56. GaW may also be useful for historically oriented human geographers, place name researchers, and other language scholars.

57. The re-use of data is something that is often mentioned in European discussions of infrastructure.

58. See the introduction to this article.

59. See, for example, Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). On the similarities between Amartya Sen and Gøsta Esping-Andersen's discussion of welfare, see Maria Ågren, ‘Scandinavia’, in Families and States in North-western Europe, ed. Quentin Skinner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

60. Robeyns, ‘Sen's capability approach’, 65–7.

61. See several of the contributions in Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003), which is a thematic issue on Sen's work, especially Des Gasper and Irene van Staveren, ‘Development as Freedom – and What Else?’, Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003): 137–61, for a criticism of, what the authors view as, the unclear use of the term freedom.

62. See, especially, Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

63. Marianne T. Hill, ‘Development as Empowerment’, Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003): 118.

64. It should be added here that many of those who have participated in this discussion are development researchers for whom the use of value-laden expressions such as ‘better social conditions’ do not appear to be problematical.

65. Robeyns, ‘Sen's capability approach’, 64, 67f.

66. While ‘capability’ denotes the still unrealized potential, ‘functioning’ describes the realized capacity to do and be. Robeyns, ‘Sen's capability approach’, 63, 85.

67. See especially Ogilvie, Bitter Living, 344–52.

68. See GaW's homepage, http://gaw.hist.uu.se.