‘‘Isn't it time you were finishing?’’: Women's Labor Force Participation and Childbearing in England, 1860–1920

Abstract

This contribution examines the relationship between women's labor force participation (LFP) and fertility in three industrial towns of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England from a feminist economic perspective. The study augments existing statistical approaches to demographic history by discussing women's motivations. Women's LFP influenced their likelihood of family limitation (via effects on both age at marriage and marital fertility). Where women were most likely to be in paid work, they were most likely to limit family size. It is further argued that the diversity of LFP patterns is the principal explanation for the varied patterns of fertility decline in different parts of Britain.

Keywords:

• History
• fertility
• nineteenth century
• England
• women
• employment

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Earlier versions of this study were presented at the European Science Foundation's Exploratory Workshop on the Reconstruction of the Female Labor Market Participation Rate in Barcelona and at a Local Population Studies Society conference in Norwich, both in November 2010. Thanks are due to the workshop organizers, Jane Humphries and Carmen Sarasúa; to participants for their comments; to Barry Doyle; and to the three anonymous reviewers.

Notes

While the geographical definitions of Bradford, Leeds, and Middlesbrough used here are not strictly comparable between 1881 and other years, the resulting errors are small. Details are discussed in Atkinson (2010).