«Reconsidering women's labor force participation rates in eighteenth-century Turin»

This paper presents initial estimates of female labor force participation rates in preindustrial Turin. According to the population census of 1802, participation rates of married women are suspiciously low compared with rates of unmarried women or widows and therefore needing additional investigation. Firstly, the paper points out the value of a methodological approach based on the use of non-principal breadwinner oriented sources, such as registers of applicants for poor relief. Here all the members of the family were encouraged to declare their occupations and activities in some detail in order to demonstrate their concrete contribution to the survival of the family. Finally, the paper discusses the female occupational patterns of domestic servants and of artisans and laborers in silk manufacturing. This highlights the crucial role played by migration flows and by women's access to skilled or low-qualified jobs, in determining the extent of female participation in preindustrial Turin's labor market.