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The Wages Of Women In England,1260-1850

Author

Listed:
  • Humphries, Jane

    (Oxford University)

  • Weisdorf, Jacob

    (Odense and CEPR)

Abstract
This paper presents two wage series for unskilled English women workers from 1260 to 1850, the first based on daily wages and the second on the remuneration per day implied in annual service contracts. These two series are compared and the series for women’s daily wages is also compared with evidence for men, revealing interesting trends in the gender gap. These comparisons inform several recent debates first whether or not “the golden age of the English peasantry” included women; and, second whether or not protoindustrialization and early industrialization provided women with greater opportunities. Our contributions to these debates have implications for wider analyses of growth and wellbeing. For example, historians have argued that the rise in wages that followed the Black Death enticed female servants to delay marriage so contributing to a European Marriage Pattern, a demographic regime believed to enable modern economic growth. However, our findings suggest that servants did not benefit much in the post-plague era and so offers little in support of a ‘girl-powered’ economic breakthrough in England. Similarly, historians have hypothesized that high wages in the eighteenth century explain the labour-saving technological changes which kick-started the industrial revolution and, recently, that women shared in these high wages. Again our findings suggest a less rosy scenario with women who were unable to commit to full-time work losing ground relative to men and to their less constrained peers; such women fell increasingly adrift from any High Wage Economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2015. "The Wages Of Women In England,1260-1850," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 215, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cge:wacage:215
    as

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    File URL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/215-2015_weisdorf.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Luiten van Zanden, 2011. "The Malthusian Intermezzo - Women’s wages and human capital formation between the Late Middle Ages and the Demographic Transition of the 19th century," Working Papers 0014, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    2. Simon A.C. Penn & Christopher Dyer, 1990. "Wages and earnings in late medieval England: evidence from the enforcement of the labour laws," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 43(3), pages 356-376, August.
    3. Froide, Amy M., 2007. "Never Married: Singlewomen in Early Modern England," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199237623.
    4. Allen, Robert C., 2001. "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 411-447, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Black Death; England; gender wage gap; industrial revolution; wages; women.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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