The crofter is a woman: Gender division of labour in rural semi-landless households, Sweden 1850–1900
Uppenberg, Carolina and Nilsson, Malin LU
(2025)
In Agricultural History Review
73(1).
p.72-95
- Abstract (Swedish)
- This paper contributes to the empirical question of the labour organization and gender division of labour in a semi-landless rural group during the second half of the nineteenth century, a period charac-terized by developing agrarian capitalism. Thereby, we also add to the broader question of the role of gender division of labour in economic transformation. Through a triangulation of sources – crofters’ contracts, work lists and ethnographic questionnaires, we found that men performed a much higher number of corvée days per year compared to women. Moreover, we found that many core agricultural tasks were done by both men and women. The labour organization, on the other hand, was clearly gendered – the role as a crofter in the sense of... (More)
- This paper contributes to the empirical question of the labour organization and gender division of labour in a semi-landless rural group during the second half of the nineteenth century, a period charac-terized by developing agrarian capitalism. Thereby, we also add to the broader question of the role of gender division of labour in economic transformation. Through a triangulation of sources – crofters’ contracts, work lists and ethnographic questionnaires, we found that men performed a much higher number of corvée days per year compared to women. Moreover, we found that many core agricultural tasks were done by both men and women. The labour organization, on the other hand, was clearly gendered – the role as a crofter in the sense of doing corvée labour for a landowner was primarily a male experience, while the role as a crofter in the sense of working one’s own small plot of land was to a larger extent a female experience. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cd0c051d-fd53-42c9-a83c-e7b3c992bdf5
- author
- Uppenberg, Carolina
and Nilsson, Malin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Agricultural History Review
- volume
- 73
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 72 - 95
- publisher
- British Agricultural History Society
- ISSN
- 0002-1490
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cd0c051d-fd53-42c9-a83c-e7b3c992bdf5
- alternative location
- https://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLE.html?ID=767&MOD=this
- date added to LUP
- 2025-05-23 15:34:01
- date last changed
- 2025-05-26 08:52:21
@article{cd0c051d-fd53-42c9-a83c-e7b3c992bdf5,
abstract = {{This paper contributes to the empirical question of the labour organization and gender division of labour in a semi-landless rural group during the second half of the nineteenth century, a period charac-terized by developing agrarian capitalism. Thereby, we also add to the broader question of the role of gender division of labour in economic transformation. Through a triangulation of sources – crofters’ contracts, work lists and ethnographic questionnaires, we found that men performed a much higher number of corvée days per year compared to women. Moreover, we found that many core agricultural tasks were done by both men and women. The labour organization, on the other hand, was clearly gendered – the role as a crofter in the sense of doing corvée labour for a landowner was primarily a male experience, while the role as a crofter in the sense of working one’s own small plot of land was to a larger extent a female experience.}},
author = {{Uppenberg, Carolina and Nilsson, Malin}},
issn = {{0002-1490}},
language = {{swe}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{72--95}},
publisher = {{British Agricultural History Society}},
series = {{Agricultural History Review}},
title = {{The crofter is a woman: Gender division of labour in rural semi-landless households, Sweden 1850–1900}},
url = {{https://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLE.html?ID=767&MOD=this}},
volume = {{73}},
year = {{2025}},
}