The Importance of Ideology: the Shift to Factory Production and its Effect on Women's Employment Opportunities in the English Textile Industries

Paul Minoletti

Mansfield College, Oxford

Abstract

This paper uses data from the 1833 Factory Inquiry to assess male and female occupations and earnings in factory textile production. This is contrasted with evidence drawn from various sources on male and female employment in domestic industry. 1780-1850 was a period of dramatic change in the nature and location of textile production, with important consequences for women's work. Whilst economic factors explain some of the changes we see, gender ideology had a powerful effect on how the labour market operated, and this was increasingly the case over this period as the organisation of work became more formalised and hierarchical.