Publication

1990 - Oxford University Press, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

55,500 words, Guess

Page Count

222 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • Goodreads4792424
  • LibraryThing517697

Classifications

  • DDC331.4/8164046/0973
  • LCCHD6073.H842 U625 1990

Description

Over the course of a two hundred year period, women's domestic labor gradually lost its footing as a recognized aspect of economic life in America. The image of the colonial "goodwife," valued for her contribution to household prosperity, had been replaced by the image of a "dependent" and a "non-producer." This book is a history of housework in the United States prior to the Civil War. More particularly, it is a history of women's unpaid domestic labor in the context of the emergence of an industrialized society in the northern United States. Boydston argues that just as a capitalist economic order had first to teach that wages were the measure of a man's worth, it had at the same time, implicitly or explicitly, to teach that those who did not draw wages were dependent and not essential to the "real economy." Developing a striking account of the gender and labor systems that characterized industrializing America, Boydston explains how this effected the devaluation of women's unpaid labor.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • Home and workOxford University Press1990

Reader Reviews

No reviews yet for this book.

Be the first to share your thoughts!