Trabajo agrario femenino en Cataluña, 1830-1930

Abstract

Work by women was crucial to guaranteeing the viability of small peasant farms in Catalonia throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In this article, we describe the jobs done by peasant women on their own family farms, the tasks for which they were hired as day-labourers, and the organization of work crews for the period covering 1850-1930. We then analyse the volume of female agricultural labour contracted in relation to male labour, as well as the seasonality of the work carried out by female day-labourers. The study establishes new wage series and calculations for the wage gap between male and female earnings in various Catalan counties. Finally, we identify factors that help explain the wage differences detected among counties.