Market wage or discrimination? The remuneration of male and female wool spinners in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic

In the historical debate, the gender wage gap is usually attributed either to productivity differences or to gender discrimination. By analysing a newly constructed series of spinning wages in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, the wages of male and female textile workers for the same work coul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic history review 2010-02, Vol.63 (1), p.165-186
Main Author: VAN NEDERVEEN MEERKERK, ELISE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
17th century
Children
Economic history
Female labour
Gender
Labor market
Labor markets
Labour market
Men
Netherlands
Productivity
Sex discrimination
Sex discrimination against women
Studies
Textile industry
Wage differential
Wage differentials
Wage discrimination
Wages
Wages & salaries
Warps
Weft
Women
Wool
Wool industry
Yarns
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Summary:In the historical debate, the gender wage gap is usually attributed either to productivity differences or to gender discrimination. By analysing a newly constructed series of spinning wages in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, the wages of male and female textile workers for the same work could be investigated. At first sight, the evidence on equal piece rates for spinning men and women seems to rule out wage discrimination. Nevertheless, more deeply rooted gender discrimination resulting from the segmented seventeenth-century labour market restricted women's access to many professions. Exactly this segmentation determined differences in wage earning capacities between men and women.
ISSN:0013-0117
1468-0289
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00500.x