Diffusion of a Social Norm: Tracing the Emergence of the Housewife in the Netherlands, 1812-1922

Frans W.A. van Poppel (), Hendrik van Dalen and Evelien Walhout ()
Additional contact information
Frans W.A. van Poppel: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute
Evelien Walhout: International Institute for Social History

No 06-107/1, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: The emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands over the period 1812-1922 was strongly influenced by the social norm that women should withdraw from the labour market on the eve of marriage. Adherence to this norm is most clearly reflected in the emergence of the housewife among the lower classes, especially at the close of the nineteenth century among wives of farmers. Women in urban municipalities, however, set the norm far earlier and differences across social classes were significantly larger in towns than in rural areas. Paradoxically, the rise of the housewife did not change work pressures for lower–class women. This paradox is resolved by noting that they substituted registered work for unregistered work, e.g., in house industries, working in the family firm or farm.

Keywords: marriage; norms; division of labour; housewife; breadwinner (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J12 J16 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-12-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/06107.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:tin:wpaper:20060107

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().