Suchergebnisse

Human reproduction is a basic economic activity in every society. It includes activities such as maternal care, childcare, old age provision, poor relief, healthcare, and labour protection. In pre-industrial times, human reproduction was typically a part of kin-based household economies, but since the onset of industrialization two new institutional solutions have developed: the male breadwinning system and the welfare state.

Both Swedish and American dairying industrialized at about the same time. Centralized factories removed processing from the farm household, where women traditionally had dominated production. In Sweden, the central involvement of women in dairy production continued as women were trained to work in buttermaking factories using up-to-date technology. In the United States, however, the number of women working in cheese factories quickly diminished and soon reached negligible proportions. Why did change in dairying have such different results for women? This article argues that young rural women made varied choices based on the vastly different structure of wealth and opportunities in the two countries, and that they evaluated their choices on the basis of relative wages as well as according to the values of personal development, status, and independence.

Milk processing as women's work in agrarian society -- The transformation of dairying in the late nineteenth century -- Industrial restructuring and masculinization in the early twentieth century -- Gendered claims to knowledge and technical expertise -- The labor market and the workplace -- Professionalization and the Swedish Association of Dairymen -- Gender at work -- Agrarian womanhood and the two-breadwinner model.