Husbandry to housewifery : rural women and development in Ireland, 1890-1914

Two perspectives guide the present study of female labour in rural Ireland between 1890 and 1914. From one view, this thesis deals with questions customarily asked by labour historians about employment, factors leading to shifts in female work, and the effects of those shifts on women. I argue that we cannot understand changes in female labour without integrating housework into our models of labour supply and demand. Women do not simply choose between work and leisure: their time is allocated between work in the home, work in the market, and leisure. Between 1890 and 1914, the position of women within the Irish labour market deteriorated. Married women came to be increasingly dependent on the husband’s wage. Economic opportunities for unmarried and widowed women collapsed. Rural women entered the fields only when demand for female labour peaked. Unpaid domestic production became more important. Rather than applying some vague notion of ’patriarchy’ or ’respectability’, this thesis discusses the movement of female labour from paid employment and familial farm labour to housework in economic terms. The crucial element is time. Changes in domestic production and productivity increased the amount of time required to perform housework. With the increasing time required to fulfil this primary function, female labour shifted into the unpaid household sector. From another view, this thesis examines current concerns about ’development’ and the impact of public and private investment in agricultural and social reform. The notion that economic growth equals improved human well-being is a central tenet in development economics. This thesis is modelled around the notion that any analysis of well-being needs to take three areas into account: Gross National Product and private consumption, noneconomic factors, and distributional factors. These factors are examined in relation to three categories of workers: Paid Workers, Subsistence Entrepreneurs and Houseworkers. The pattern of growth and development in Ireland during this period did improve female wellbeing: women were better fed, housed, and educated in 1911 than in 1891. However, women gained a smaller share of the gratifications of affluence. Economic growth exacerbated inequality within the household, making women worse off in relation to men than they had been in 1891. The co-incidence of sectoral shifts in the employment market, investment in the rural economy, and the growth of a labour and capital intensive household sector was crucial