The Transition From a Domestic Economy to an Individual Economy

Historians of women have looked at a big transition in the nature of work and tried to assess what it meant for women. They said as you move from a household economy where women work under the authority of fathers and husbands to an individual economy, how does that mean for women? And there's a long tradition within history of saying that's great for women. You can actually look at that and say there's a lot of continuity for women too. Women in those factories weren't paid as much as men were paid. Their work was devalued compared to men's, just like it was in the household economy.