Women at Work in the Pre-Civil War United States: An Analysis of Unreported Family Workers

Barry Chiswick and RaeAnn Halenda Robinson

No 587, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Rates of labor force participation in the US in the second half of the nineteenth century among free women were exceedingly (and implausibly) low, about 11 percent. This is due, in part, to social perceptions of working women, cultural and societal expectations of female’s role, and lack of accurate or thorough enumeration by Census officials. This paper develops an augmented free female labor force participation rate for 1860. It is calculated by identifying free women (age 16 and older) who were likely providing informal and unenumerated labor for market production in support of a family business, that is, unreported family workers. These individuals are identified as not having a reported occupation, but are likely to be working on the basis of the self-employment occupation of other relatives in their households. Family workers are classified into three categories: farm, merchant, and craft. The inclusion of this category of workers more than triples the free female labor force participation rate in the 1860 Census, from 16 percent to 56 percent, which is comparable to today’s rate (57 percent in 2018).

Keywords: Women; Labor Force Participation; Occupational Attainment; Unpaid Workers; Unreported Family Workers; 1860 Census (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J21 J82 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-iue and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Women at Work in the Pre-Civil War United States: An Analysis of Unreported Family Workers (2020)
Working Paper: Women at Work in the Pre-Civil War United States: An Analysis of Unreported Family Workers (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:587

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