Paid and unpaid work

This chapter investigates the domestic sphere as a space of paid and unpaid work among middle and lower classes in Early Modern and Modern Europe. It is organized in four sections. Section two will review the many ways in which the dichotomy public/domestic sphere is present in scholarly literature, beyond the well-known ‘separate spheres’ ideology developed by Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall. Indeed, the ideology of the separate spheres, and its multiple variations, is a long-lasting leitmotiv of social, cultural and economic history and the premise for a longstanding historiographical debate. The remaining sections will focus the literature on the topic concerning Early Modern and Modern Western Europe (with a special attention to Italy, France and England). It will show that (Western) European households were, and probably still are (or have been until recently), a place where different kinds of work have been/are performed. Section three will study how the ‘separate spheres’ ideology has been criticized and mitigated by British historiography about industrialization. Section four focuses on scholarly literature on Italy, France and other countries in mainland Europe. It will discuss how recent research stemming from gender and family history has called into question the unity and the uniqueness of the domestic sphere as a space of work and production. The section will show that the recent attention to the role of women and independent business women, as well as a more attentive analysis of the allocation of chores performed within the household, has helped to mitigate the general idea that husbands and wives of middle and lower classes were always engaged in a common activity which was necessarily ingrained in the context of the family industry. Even if the household retained its importance as a locus of work, it does not mean that women were relegated to the domestic sphere.