Outline and critically assess the argument that domestic production in the period before the industrial revolution fostered equality between women and men.

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Ashley Wicken 1526

Outline and critically assess the argument that domestic production in the period before the industrial revolution fostered equality between women and men.

The subjective political assumptions that underlie notions of equality will play their part in this debate. History is written largely from a male perspective "looking at female participation rates in the formal economy of work mainly undertaken outside the home. Yet much female work has been concentrated outside this formal economy...not readily enter historical record." Women are underrepresented in official statistics of the period as part-time work by women was not recorded. How do you measure the status attributed to women's work. These methodological are central to this debate. This essay will set down whether sexual equality was greater before of after industrialisation.

Alice Clark states that women played a more pronounced and equal role in financial decisions pre industrialization. This period is therefore a golden age of sexual equality. This view has a pessimistic understanding of industrialisation, "capitalistic organisation coincided with a restriction of women's productive capacity" 1 and 'tend to deprive them of opportunities for sharing in the more profitable forms of production, confining them as wage earners to the unprotected trades.'2 She looks back to a supposed "golden age" of the pre industrial period. She studied the transition from feudal to modern society, focusing upon economic equality between men and women in this period. She found that the nature of economic relations in the period of domestic production were moer equal than any other time in history. Her work also includes a criticism of the inequality in the perception of the work carried out by women as being inferior.

Clark's argument has been heavily criticised for its generalisation. Marry Wiesner

"Generalisation... which lump all women together are dangerous"3 Britian has industrially diverse regions that were affected differently by industrialisation therefore women's experiences in this period will differ. Dorothy Georye's study of London is the point in case. She found that "it is improvement, not deterioration, which can be traced about 1750." London is the exception from the rule set down by Clark. Clark tends to ignore exceptions to her thesis rather than use them to enhance her understanding. In almost every aspect of both private and public life women and men alike achieved improvements during the industrial period. Although Clark's argument is quite valid in some regions it is insufficient. Bridget Hill comments that no study can ever tell us everything that we wish to know about a topic. Clarks, study because of its generalisation has become a foundation study in this area that has been built upon and improved over time.
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Generally references to a golden age are considered flawed, tending to be a construct rather than a social reality. They are hugely subjective and reflect more about the person righting than about the past period they studied. Their use is therefore limited.

Tilly & Scott's reinforced Clark's theory they see industry as fitting into three models "family organization: the family economy (where every member of the family contributed); which gave way after industrialization to the family wage economy (where members of the household went out to work to earn wages rather than producing goods within the ...

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