ABSTRACT
As the editors point out in the introduction, it was mainly women who demanded divorce from their husbands. This step presupposed that they saw themselves in a position to lead an economically independent life apart from their husbands. This applied to all women but was especially true for divorced wives who did not have the opportunity to remarry during their husband’s lifetime. In spite of ideological notions about the husband’s duty to support his wife and family (“male breadwinner”) and his right to wield authority over household members (“pater familias”), in reality almost all households were based on a two-supporter model according to which both spouses were expected to contribute to the common economy and exercise authority. In this chapter, I therefore focus on the household. Until well into the twentieth century, household economies were generally based on the married couple, or on what remained of it after death or divorce.
I present results achieved with the methods and concepts for a practice-oriented approach to work that have been developed in the Swedish “Gender and Work” project. I point to the longstanding differences between the work ever-married and unmarried women did, respectively. I also discuss how the term commonly used for an ever-married Swedish women (hustru) gradually turned into an indicator of marital status only. However, the realities of working life did not change dramatically, not even in the nineteenth century. Married women continued to perform a wide spectrum of work activities, and households continued to function according to a two-supporter model.
