Migration, Marriage, and Social Mobility : Women in Sweden 1880-1900

We study the social mobility of women by looking at the connection between migration and marriage outcomes using complete count census data for Sweden. The censuses 1880-1900 have been linked at the individual level, enabling us to follow 100,000 women from their parental home to their new marital household. Marriage market imbalances were not an important push factor for migration but we find a strong association between migration distance and marriage outcomes, both in terms of overall marriage probabilities and in terms of partner selection. These results highlight the importance of migration for women’s social mobility during industrialization