| The process of industrialization may be affected by--and may affect--the economic relationship between men and women. This dissertation examines the impact of sex roles on the early industrial development of England. It shows that while the traditional sex-based division of labor was important in the growth of industry, the economic relationship between men and women was changed by industrialization as well.; In pre-industrial England, men and women were expected to perform separate but complementary roles in the production process. Men were for the most part responsible for growing grain, while women produced dairy products.; As the enclosure movement expanded during the eighteenth century, the common pastures upon which the women's livestock industry depended were absorbed into larger private holdings. Enclosure thus divorced women from their traditional sources of employment and income.; In search of employment that could be combined with their domestic responsibilities, women turned to spinning for the textile factors. This drove down their wages as it expanded the output of England's largest industrial employer--the wool textile industry.; Evidence for this hypothesis has been gathered from the research of many modern economists, such as K. D. M. Snell, N. F. R. Crafts, Jeffery Williamson, and Ann Kussmaul. Data on wages in agriculture and the textile industry was gathered primarily from primary sources. |
