Maggie Coleman writes:
I have gone back over nineteenth
>century labor records in the USA, and in reality the first waged labor
force
>in the USA was the vast majority FEMALE, both married and unmarried.
Young
>women worked in the factories, while 45-75% of New England households
engaged
>in outwork, with almost 100% if those outworkers being women who
engaged in
>both their family duties and waged work simultaneously within the home.
So,
>yes, the male breadwinner earned most of the income, but women have
always
>been significant contributors to household incomes.
(Snip)about
>
>Maggie:
>.... NONE of the earliest walkouts, strikes, and labor unions in the
>United States involved men. Early labor history in the USA is one of
women
>and children striking and forming unions.
Amazing
>p.s. if you integrate race analysis with the role of women in the labor
>market, women's permanent involvement in wage labor becomes even more
>striking. F'rinstance, in the 20th century black women's labor force
>participation has never officially fallen below 40% AND THOSE
STATISTICS DO
>NOT INCLUDE DOMESTIC LABOR.
Yes, and at the other historical part of your discussion, Black women were doing an enormous amount of unwaged labor, in the field and in the house, in the early 1800's, adding to the majority women's labor scenario you describe at that time.
Charles Brown
>
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