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The Political Economy of Women's Work

1900-1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

John Sharpless  and
John Rury
John Sharpless
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
John Rury
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

Recent work in women's history suggests that the dramatic rise in female labor force participation in the first decades of the twentieth century cannot be understood solely in terms of labor market forces. Although the demand for female labor increased substantially between 1900 and 1920 (Oppenheimer, 1970), such variables as religion, education, ethnicity, and social class interacted to determine the supply of women available for hire at any one time. It should not be surprising, therefore, that “cultural” variables such as these also served to limit the ability of women to improve their position in the labor market generally. This article will examine the ways in which the family and work environments interacted to determine the responsiveness of working women to different sorts of organizations which (theoretically) could have assisted them in altering the basic conditions of their work and family experiences.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , Summer 1980 , pp. 317 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1980

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