ABSTRACT
Introduction While the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed the beginnings of the creation of a fully commodifi ed labour market and the formal separation of the public (i.e. productive) and private (i.e. reproductive) spheres, these processes were not completed until the nineteenth century. In this century, the spread of industrial capitalism and the concomitant rise of liberal political economy perpetuated a series of myths about the ‘freedom’ of workers to choose to sell their labour power in exchange for a wage and the automaticity of markets to align supply with demand. The myths of femininity (as conceived by the bourgeoisie) and of women’s ‘natural’ position in the home (and/or in low-paid labour) are less well noted but equally important for understanding the causes and consequences of capitalist development during this period.
