Women in textiles

Remuneration, Labour Relations, and Gender in Europe during Industrialization (Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries)

Martini, Manuela (ed.)

This volume investigates the gendered dynamics of labour in the French and European textile industries, focusing on the economic roles of women within and beyond the household. While the presence of women in textile production is well documented, this collection probes deeper into the structure of their remuneration, the division of labour between domestic and income-generating tasks, and the temporal organization of work. By examining how working-class families balanced household responsibilities with wage labour, the book reconstructs the composition of individual and family incomes across a range of textile trades, including silk weaving, hosiery, lacemaking, and glove-making.
Combining original qualitative and quantitative sources with innovative digital humanities methodologies, the contributors offer a nuanced analysis of both normative frameworks and everyday practices. The volume situates the household as a central unit of economic activity and social negotiation, revealing how gender shaped access to work, time allocation, and the valuation of labour. Through this interdisciplinary approach, the chapters gathered here provide new insights into the historical construction of wage systems and the lived realities of working-class women in Europe in the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries.