ABSTRACT
Early industrialization did not create dramatic changes in the types of jobs women did. Yet the changes associated with economic and urban growth did alter the location of work and increased the numbers of women working for wages. Most significant, in fact, was the spread of wage labor which accompanied industrialization. The decline of the household mode of production meant that women more often worked away from their homes. The concentration of certain jobs in specific regions or cities, moreover, drew young rural women farther from home than their predecessors had gone to find employment. For increasing numbers of women, as well, the essence of work was earning a wage. Since they were members of family wage economies, their work was defined not by household labor needs, but by the household's need for money to pay for food and to meet other expenses, such as rent. In the family wage economy the interdependence of family members and their sense of obligation to the family unit remained strong. The importance of family membership and family ties continued. As in the past, daughters and wives worked in the family interest. The old rules of the family economy continued to operate in new contexts. But changing conditions, and particularly the spread of wage labor, began to change the relationships of daughters to their families as well as the allocation of married women's time among their productive and household activities.
