The Gender Wage Gap in Early Modern Toledo, 1550–1650

We exploit the records of a large Toledan hospital to study the compensation of female labor and the gender wage gap in early modern Castile in the context of nursing—a non-gendered, low-skill occupation in which men and women performed the same clearly defined tasks. We employ a robust methodology...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of economic history 2020-06, Vol.80 (2), p.351-385
Main Authors: Drelichman, Mauricio, González Agudo, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
16th century
Cities
Compensation
Construction
Early modern period
Economic history
Employment
Females
Gender inequality
Gender pay gap
Hospitalization
Income inequality
Labor market
Manual workers
Markets
Medieval period
Nurses
Occupations
Patient admissions
Permanent establishment
Productivity
Scarcity
Task performance
Wage differential
Wages & salaries
Women
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Summary:We exploit the records of a large Toledan hospital to study the compensation of female labor and the gender wage gap in early modern Castile in the context of nursing—a non-gendered, low-skill occupation in which men and women performed the same clearly defined tasks. We employ a robust methodology to estimate the value of in-kind compensation, and show it to constitute a central part of the labor contract, far exceeding subsistence requirements. Patient admissions records are used to measure nurse productivity, which did not differ across genders. Female compensation varied between 70 percent and 100 percent of male levels, with fluctuations clearly linked to relative labor scarcity. Contrary to common assumptions in the literature, we show that markets played an important role in setting female compensation in early modern Castile. The sources of the gender disparity are, therefore, likely to be found in the broader social and cultural context.
ISSN:0022-0507
1471-6372
DOI:10.1017/S0022050720000145