The Wages of Women in England, 1260-1850

Jane Humphries and Jacob Weisdorf

No 9903, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper presents a wage series for unskilled English women workers from 1260 to 1850 and compares it with existing evidence for men. Our series cast light on long run trends in women?s agency and wellbeing, revealing an intractable, indeed widening gap between women and men?s remuneration in the centuries following the Black Death. This informs several recent debates: first whether or not ?the golden age of the English peasantry? included women; and second whether or not industrialization provided women with greater opportunities. Our contributions to both debates have implications for analyses of growth and trends in wellbeing. If the rise in wages that followed the Black Death enticed female servants to delay marriage, it contributed to the formation of the European Marriage Pattern, a demographic regime which positioned England on a path to modern economic growth. If the industrial revolution provided women with improved economic options, their gains should be included in any overall assessment of trends in the standard of living.

Keywords: Black death; England; Gender segregation; Gender wage gap; Industrial revolution; Wages; Women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J3 J4 J6 J7 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP9903 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: The Wages of Women in England, 1260–1850 (2015)
Working Paper: THE WAGES OF WOMEN IN ENGLAND,1260-1850 (2015)
Working Paper: The Wages of Women in England, 1260-1850 (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9903

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP9903

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().