Womens Role In The Economy Essay example -- essays papers

Womens Role In The EconomyThe Transfer of Womens Work from the spot to the Market The transfer of womens release from the household to commercial utilization is one of the most notable features of economic development (Lewis, Historical Perspectives on the the Statesn Economy P. 550). In colonial America at that place was a distinct sexual division of labor. Men were property owners and heads of households. A soldierys responsibilities included staple crop farming, hunting, and skilled craftsmanship in order to produce commodities for market (An Economic History of Women in America Pp. 30-33). Women were responsible for a variety of different jobs. In the home and the palm women ensured the survival of the family. They were responsible for child rearing, house act, food processing, cloth and clothing manufacture, compact disk and soap making, household furnishings, and farm chores (EHWA P. 31). A few unmarried women would release outside the home as domestics or farm servants. Women would also cover up the sale of handicrafts and household manufacture. In the early nineteenth century only a very small fraction of women in the United States worked in the agricultural, industrial, and service areas of the market sector. Wages of women relative to those of men were exceptionally base within the area of agriculture. With the spread of industry, relative wages for women profitd, and their employment appeared to be linked to the technological advances of the factory system. As the country became much industrialized, more women began to work outside the home, in factories and in the clerical sector, and their wages began to increase relative to the wages of men. Late in the nineteenth century in that location was a rising demand for clerical workers. By 1890, only 18.2% of grownup women participated in the labor market. Of that 19%, 40.5% were single women (aged between fifteen and twenty-four). provided 4.6% were married women. (H PAE P. 560) It was not until the twentieth century that married women entered the labor wad in any substantial way. They first entered the labor troops in the 1920s when they were young, and later in the 1940s and 1950s, in their post-child-rearing years. There book been important gains in the participation of married women in the labor force, with particular(prenominal) age groups, or cohorts, affected during particular decades. I... ...ed women in Americas past frequently came from an economic necessity, but it has also implied economic autonomy. The bone of economic independence for women has resulted in many social and societal changes such(prenominal) as the formation of wider and less family-dependant social networks, a greater disaster for marital dissolution, and the possibility of less constrained and structured gender roles (HPAE P. 571). Today, there are almost as many women in the work force as there are men. It is now a rarity for a woman to work excl usively within the home. In our current preservation it is almost a necessity for both the man and woman to work outside the home in order for the household to survive. It was interesting to read about the economic factors affected womens participation in the work force in the past and relate that to womens role in the work force today.BibliographyMatthaei, Julie A. An Economic History of Women in America Womens Work, the Sexual Division of Labor, and Development of Capitalism. New York Schocken Books, 1982.Whaples, Robert and Betts, Dianne C. Historical Perspectives on the American Economy. New York Cambridge University Press, 1996.