ABSTRACT
Hans Medick's examines the issue of women's status or, to use the language of Segalen's translator, of love and power, in the proto-industrial family again. None of the proto-industrial jobs performed by women and men in rural areas in and of themselves conferred high labour status. As an eighteenth-century Swiss pastor cited by Braun observed, 'These people came with cotton and must die with it'. Once again adolescents had to leave home to find work, standards of living declined, and both men and women began to contemplate migration to urban manufacturing centres. He argues that the return of men's work to the house and the creation of jobs for women in proto-industrial regions had a profound effect upon roles and relationships. He raises an intriguing possibility, that proto-industrialization, by providing jobs for women increased their power within the family and the larger community.
