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Managing a large household. The gender division of work in orphanages in Dutch towns in the early modern period, 1580–1800

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.hisfam.2008.01.002

1873-5398

Ariadne Schmidt,

Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

Abstract Early modern social institutions were modelled analogous to the family, and work within these institutions strongly depended upon the co-operation of women and men. This type of organization seems to be contradictory to processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. This article investigates to what extent professionalization and bureaucratization took place in early modern orphanages and how this influenced the gender division of work. By analyzing various occupations, remuneration and access to work in three Dutch orphanages it becomes clear that the frequently mentioned characteristics that made ‘typical’ women's work combinable with women's reproductive tasks, were not all applicable and cannot wholly explain female access to these occupations. Work was characterized by an increasing differentiation, hierarchy and, to a certain extent, bureaucratization tendencies. At the same time, the gender division sharpened. However, the late eighteenth century ideology of women as nurturers and the strong analogy to the role women were supposed to play within the household prevented exclusion from this domain. Keywords: OrphanagesGender division of workEarly modern periodDutch Republic Acknowledgements The research for this paper was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and is part of the research project ‘Women's work in the Northern Netherlands in the early modern era, c.1550–1815’. See www.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.php. This paper is a revised version of Schmidt, 2007 Schmidt, A. 2007. Werken voor wezen. Vrouwen, mannen en de verdeling van werk in weeshuizen in de vroegmoderne tijd. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 120(2): 164–179. [Google Scholar]. ‘Werken voor wezen. Vrouwen, mannen en de verdeling van werk in weeshuizen in de vroegmoderne tijd’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 120.2, 164–179. Thanks to Hilde Timmerman for her references and data about the Leyden orphanage in the eighteenth century and to Lex Heerma van Voss, Danielle van den Heuvel and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Translation by Jurriaan Bendien.