ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the domestic sphere as a space of paid and unpaid work among the middle and lower classes in early modern and modern Europe. The waged labour/domestic work dichotomy refers to a specific image of society and to distinctive ideals of masculinity and femininity, according to which female and male ‘natural duties and behaviours’ were clear-cut and well-defined. The Industrial Revolution has been understood as a turning point in the history of women’s work. Yet it would be misleading to conclude that the separate sphere ideology and subsequent devaluation of women’s work were merely by-products of the social and economic phenomena connected to industrialization. Women’s history has profoundly changed and enhanced our understanding of the Industrial Revolution, and more generally of the economic growth that took place during those decades.
