57 research outputs found
Conflict over Women’s Working Times on the Eve of Industrialisation: Spanish Social Reformers’ Surveys at the End of the Nineteenth Century
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Spain experienced growing social instability. The worsening working conditions stimulated social conflict and the rise of the labour movement. In this context, the first voices in favour of state intervention in conflicts between capital and labour arose among the reformist intellectual elite. One of the first social policy measures undertaken by the state was the creation, in 1883, of the Comisión de Reformas Sociales (Commission for Social Reforms, CRS) as a consultative and advisory institution of the government on social issues. Under the influence of positivist methods of empirical sociology, the commission’s first initiative was to conduct a survey with the objective of undertaking a detailed diagnosis of the living conditions of the working population. Changing gender relations in the family and labour market, especially the conflicts over the use of women’s time, was one of the central questions in this survey. Thus, its results allow us to analyse both the discourses – by social reformers and other social groups – and the social practices of women at work in different sectors and in different parts of Spain
Conflict over Women’s Working Times on the Eve of Industrialisation: Spanish Social Reformers’ Surveys at the End of the Nineteenth Century
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Spain experienced growing social instability. The worsening working conditions stimulated social conflict and the rise of the labour movement. In this context, the first voices in favour of state intervention in conflicts between capital and labour arose among the reformist intellectual elite. One of the first social policy measures undertaken by the state was the creation, in 1883, of the Comisión de Reformas Sociales (Commission for Social Reforms, CRS) as a consultative and advisory institution of the government on social issues. Under the influence of positivist methods of empirical sociology, the commission’s first initiative was to conduct a survey with the objective of undertaking a detailed diagnosis of the living conditions of the working population. Changing gender relations in the family and labour market, especially the conflicts over the use of women’s time, was one of the central questions in this survey. Thus, its results allow us to analyse both the discourses – by social reformers and other social groups – and the social practices of women at work in different sectors and in different parts of Spain
Women's work in contemporary Catalonia from the household perspective: balance and prospects
Este artĂculo realiza un balance del estado del conocimiento sobre la transiciĂłn de la actividad femenina en el proceso de industrializaciĂłn catalán, a partir de los resultados de las investigaciones realizadas desde la perspectiva de los hogares. A partir de la propia investigaciĂłn sobre la ciudad de Barcelona, se contrastan asĂ mismo las diferencias introducidas por los mercados de trabajo locales, concluyendo sobre la imposibilidad de extrapolar los resultados obtenidos en poblaciones eminentemente industriales al modelo industrial y urbano barcelonĂ©s, en el que los condicionantes de la actividad femenina aparecen menos ligados a los factores de oferta y al ciclo de vida familiar que a los factores de demanda.The first part of this article is a review essay of women's work research from the household perspective on the Catalan industrialization process. In the second part I present some new data of my own research carried out in the city of Barcelona. The conclusions of this comparative essay points out to the impossibility of applying to Barcelona the same pattems of other urban and industrialised areas of Catalonia. A reasonable explanation for this lies on the fact that female work in Barcelona seems not to depend so much on supply factors and familial life cycle, as on labour market demand
Subjectivity and social change in women's life stories: notes on the biographycal method
En los Ăşltimos años, buena parte de las renovaciones conceptuales producidas por lainvestigaciĂłn feminista se han basado en metodologĂas cualitativas y más concretamente en elmĂ©todo biográfico. La biografĂa, al colocar en el centro del análisis las vidas concretas de lasmujeres, ha contribuido a cuestionar algunas de las categorĂas clásicas de las ciencias sociales,abstractas y pretendidamente neutras, pero muy poco aptas para captar la especificidad y complejidadde las experiencias femeninas, AsĂ mismo, ha aportado nuevas perspectivas sobre algunas delas dicotomĂas clásicas más frecuentemente aplicadas a la historia de las mujeres, como producciĂłn/reproducciĂłn, pĂşblico/privado, o familia/trabajo, entre otras. Frente al peso del determinismoy los enfoques estructuralistas, las teorĂas de la acciĂłn social se han vuelto asĂ mismo hacia elmĂ©todo biográfico para restituir subjetividad a los actores sociales. Desde esta problemática,este texto explora las aportaciones del mĂ©todo biográfico a la investigaciĂłn feminista, en especialsu capacidad para analizar la subjetividad femenina y su incidencia en el cambio social.A great part of conceptual innovations produced by the feminist research has been latelybased on qualitative methodology and more concretely in the biographical method. Biography,by putting the concrete lives of women in the center of the analysis, allows to question thegender-blinded nature of theorethical concepts that are unable to analyse the specificity andcomplexity of feminine experiences. It also allows to call into question the clasical dicotomiesexisting in the social sciences like production/reproduction; private/public; family/work andso on. In reaction to deterministic and structuralist approches, theories of social action hasturn to the biographical metohodology to restore subjectivity to the social actors. This textexplore the contributions of the biography to feminist research, specially its capacity toanalyse women's subjectivity and its influence on social change
A Gendered View of Family Budgets in Mid-nineteenth Century Barcelona
Les budgets familiaux et le « genre » au milieu du xixe siècle à Barcelone Cet article cherche à analyser les différentes stratégies employées par les familles pour minimiser le risque de pauvreté et mesurer leur efficacité à Barcelone dans la première phase de l’industrialisation. La ville était la capitale économique de la Catalogne et, pour cette raison, le centre d’intérêt des statisticiens sociaux et des réformateurs de la société de cette époque. La base statistique que nous utilisons est issue de la reconstruction de budgets familiaux et de leur croisement avec des données sur les ménages issues du Registre Municipal de 1848, ainsi qu’avec les informations disponibles sur les salaires et la consommation. Les résultats indiquent que les travailleurs qualifiés n’étaient pas les seuls à percevoir « un salaire familial » et que le travail des femmes et des enfants ne constituaient pas une composante marginale de l’économie familiale. Les ménages qui dépendaient d’un seul revenu n’étaient pas seulement vulnérables face aux crises de l’emploi mais aussi devant les aléas du cycle familial. En revanche, les stratégies qui impliquaient l’accumulation de revenus et de services suggèrent une plus grande flexibilité et une véritable capacité à s’adapter aux secousses infligées par le marché.This article seeks to analyse the different strategies used by families to minimise the risk of poverty and their relative levels of efficiency in Barcelona during the first phase of industrialization. The city was the economic capital of Catalonia and, because of that, the focus of attention of Social Statistics and Social Reformers at that time. The empirical base is provided by the reconstruction of family budgets crossing household data from 1848 Municipal Register with the information on salaries and consumption. The results indicate that not even skilled workers received a "family wage" and women’s and children’s work was not a marginal component of family economy. The households that depended entirely on one income were more vulnerable not only to the consequences of the labour crises but also to the ups and downs of the family cycle. In contrast, strategies that involved the accumulation of incomes and services suggest greater flexibility and a capacity to adapt to the blows inflicted by the market
Els baixos salaris de la classe obrera durant la industrialitzaciĂł de Catalunya
Investigadors de la UAB i de la UB han dut a terme un estudi sobre l'evoluciĂł del nivell de vida de la classe obrera de Barcelona durant les primeres etapes de la industrialitzaciĂł a Catalunya. Els resultats indiquen que els ingressos del cap de famĂlia, i sovint fins i tot sumant els de tots els membres de la mateixa, van ser clarament insuficients per cobrir les necessitats bĂ siques familiars fins ben entrat el segle XX.Investigadores de la UAB y de la UB han realizado un estudio sobre la evoluciĂłn del nivel de vida de la clase obrera de Barcelona durante las primeras etapas de la industrializaciĂłn en Cataluña. Los resultados indican que los ingresos del cabeza de familia, y a menudo incluso sumando los de todos los miembros de la misma, fueron claramente insuficientes para cubrir las necesidades básicas familiares hasta muy entrado el siglo XX
La desigualdad en el consumo familiar. Diferencias de género en la España contemporánea (1850-1930)
Economic Theory has recently revised during last years the following two basic ideas on the economic working of families: i) family income is the sum of the individual income of each of its members (income pooling); and ii) all family members living in the household have equal access to family resources. Unequal access to family resources among women and men, as well as among elderly, adults and children, is now understood as an input. For instance, women ate less food and of worst quality than men. But it is also understood as an output: women had poorer health, higher epidemic mortality and were smaller than men because they had received less food and poorer medical care. Inequalities in intra-family consumption are currently drawing the attention of academics and international agencies but it is not yet in the Economic History agenda. In this paper we look at some of the resources consumed by Spanish families in the 19th century: food, alcoholic beverages, clothes and shoes. Medical topographies, our main source, suggest that gender inequality structured access to family resources, and that this inequality had a strong impact on the health and well-being of family members.La teorĂa econĂłmica ha revisado en los Ăşltimos años dos ideas básicas sobre el funcionamiento econĂłmico interno de las familias: que el ingreso familiar es la suma del ingreso de sus miembros (el income-pooling) y que el acceso a los recursos familiares por parte de los familiares que comparten hogar es igualitario. La desigualdad en el acceso a los recursos familiares (entre mujeres y hombres por un lado, y entre adultos, ancianos y niños por otro) se entiende como input (por ejemplo, que las mujeres coman menos y peor que los hombres) y como output (por ejemplo, que las mujeres tengan peor salud, mayor sobre-mortalidad epidĂ©mica o menor altura por estar peor alimentadas y peor atendidas mĂ©dicamente). A pesar de que la desigualdad en el consumo intra-familiar es hoy objeto de análisis por parte de expertos y organismos econĂłmicos internacionales, apenas ha sido desarrollado por la Historia econĂłmica. En este artĂculo estudiamos la desigualdad en el acceso de hombres y mujeres a algunos de los recursos que consumĂan las familias en la España del siglo XIX: alimentos, bebidas alcohĂłlicas, vestido y calzado. Las TopografĂas mĂ©dicas que usamos como fuente principal sugieren que el acceso desigual de mujeres y hombres a los recursos familiares tuvo un fuerte impacto en la salud y el bienestar de sus miembros
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