Dan Lazare
Rob 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. Historically in the USA,
this was hidden by the fact that prior to the Civil War, married women were
not LEGALLY ENTITLED TO COLLECT THEIR OWN WAGES -- THESE WAGES WERE PAID
HUSBANDS. Further, the high rate of heterosexual marriage in this country was
a pattern which only began in the 1950s. F'rinstance, 13% of all women born
in massachusetts 1820-30 never married, and there was a very, very high rate
of widowhood and abandonment. By the 1840s, it could be postulated that over
a third of all adult women were not receiving income from a paternal home!!!
By 1830, 1/3 of all freed black households in Philadelphia were headed by
women. (I can supply references for all this if anyone is interested).
I think rather than say women relied on working class men, it is safer to say
that working class men and the upper classes of capitalism SHARED women's
labor and they both received surplus from that labor.
>>