The Economic History of Work and Family

Readings

Books to Purchase

Bray, Francesca. Technology and Gender. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780520208612.

Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Hochschild, eds. Global Women: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2003, 2004. ISBN: 9780805069952.

Hansen, Karen. Not-So-Nuclear Families. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780813535012.

Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1985. ISBN: 9780465037568.

Readings by Session

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction Review of course expectations and overview of the key questions of the course.	Nelson, Julie. “The Study of Choice or the Study of Provisioning?” In Beyond Economic Man. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226242019. Schultz, Theodore. “Population Effects of the Value of Human Time.” In The Reader in Population and Development (RPD). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780312215170.  A version of this article and many others on a similar subject can be found in the special issue of the Journal of Political Economy 82, no. 2 (1974). (Part two)
2	Film Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale.  This film, based on the path-breaking book of the same title, offers a powerful narrative recreation of one historical moment. We will use this moment to help contextualize the social scientific questions addressed in next week’s reading.
3	The New Economics of the Family	Becker, Gary. “On the relevance of the new economics of the family.” American Economic Review 64 (1974): 317-319. Willis, Robert. “What have we learned from the economics of the family?” American Economic Review 77 (1987): 68-81. Folbre, Nancy. “Children as public goods.” American Economic Review 84 (1994): 86-90. Folbre. “Patriarchy and fertility decisions.” Feminist Studies 9 (1983): 261-284. Sen, Amartya. “Co-operation, inequality and the family.” Population and Development Review 15 (1989): 61-76.
4	The ‘New’ Global Economy Women’s work: the care and cleaning of a society.	Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Hochschild, eds. Global Women: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2003, 2004. ISBN: 9780805069952.  Read all of it if possible, but especially the chapters by Hochschild, Cheever, Ehrenreich, Zarembka, Thai and Sassen.
5	Family Labor and the Standard of Living in the Industrial Revolution Male/female wage gaps, capital accumulation and household welfare.	Berg, Maxine. “What difference did women’s work make to the industrial revolution.” History Workshop 35 (1993): 22-44. Horrell, Sara, and Jane Humphries. “Old questions, new data, and alternative perspectives: families’ living standards in the industrial revolution.” Journal of Economic History 52 (1992): 849-880. Horrell, Humphries, and Voth. “Destined for deprivation: human capital formation and intergenerational poverty in 19th c. England.” Explorations in Economic History 38 (2001): 339-365. Burnette, Joyce. “An investigation of the female-male wage gap during the industrial revolution in Britain.” Economic History Review 50 (1997): 257-281.
6	“His and Hers: Gender, Consumption and Household Accounting in 18th Century England.” (Special lecture by Amanda Vickery) Sponsored by the Sahin Lecture Series in the History Section and by the Program in Women’s Studies.
7	Continuity and/or Change Since the Middle Ages; or How did we Get Here?	Sharpe, Pamela. “Continuity and change: women’s history and economic history in Britain.” Economic History Review 48 (1995): 353-69. DeVries, Jan. “Between purchasing power and the world of goods.” In Women’s Work. The English Experience 1650-1914. Edited by Pamela Sharpe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780340676950. Vickery, Amanda. “Golden age to separate spheres? A review of the categories and chronology of English women’s history.” Historical Journal 36 (1993): 383-414.
8	Asian Women’s Work The gendered division of labor in Late Imperial China.	Bray, Francesca. Technology and Gender. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 173-272. ISBN: 9780520208612. (Part two)
9	Black Women’s Work The division of labor by gender and race in America.	Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1985. ISBN: 9780465037568.
10	Use class time to work on individual research projects. Students should also schedule individual appointment times with me during the preceding week to discuss the topic for your project.
11	Gender, Class and Networks of Care	Hansen, Karen. Not-So-Nuclear Families. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780813535012.
12	The Problem of Reproduction in an Early Modern Economy Reproductive technologies in Late Imperial China.	Bray, Francesca. Technology and Gender. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 273-368. ISBN: 9780520208612. (Part three)
13	The Problem of Reproduction in the Present The connection between reproduction and inequality in the labor market.	Goldin, Claudia, and Lawrence F. Katz. “The power of the pill: Oral contraceptives and women’s career and marriage decisions.” Journal of Political Economy 110, no. 4 (2002): 730-770. Goldin. “A Pollution Theory of Discrimination: Male and Female Differences in Occupations and Earnings.” (PDF)  And just for comparison, an older view of the problem by Fuchs, Victor. “Recent trends and long-run prospects for female earnings.” American Economic Review 64 (1974): 236-242.