Blood and bone: body mass,gender and health inequality in nineteenth-century British families

In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, a new institution emerged: the modern prison. Some prisons invested in scales. Upon entry, prisoners were measured and personal details documented. These meticulously compiled records afford a new vantage point from which we can peer into the dynamics of the household. Body measurements – height, weight, and body mass (weight adjusted for height) – connect to both patterns of consumption and health risk. Prison data thus speak to both gender and health inequality in the past. The paper juxtaposes a service economy (Wandsworth near London) with a modern manufacturing sector (Paisley near Glasgow) in order to contrast how economic form and opportunities in the market sector shaped relations and outcomes in the household sector. We find that families bargained over the allocation of resources; that bargaining position was influenced by economic value, mediated by maternal sacrifice; that this was an earner bias rather than gender bias; and that new industrial work for women and children supported a more egalitarian distribution that improved everyone's health status via superior heights and heavier weights. We examine Irish immigrants to assess cultural differences in family behaviour. Finally, the paper offers, for the first time, a detailed interpolation of Waaler's health risk for women.     

促进吉林省金融发展的对策思考

金融部门是现代市场经济的核心部门,区域金融发展也是区域经济增长的核心力量。本文对吉林省金融发展的状况以及存在的主要问题进行了梳理,着重分析了旨在促进吉林省金融发展进而促进经济增长的政策取向,认为从宏观和省域两个层面采取相应政策对促进吉林省金融发展有重要的作用。     

Early European population statistics and censuses

This paper examines the relationship between gender composition and rural household strategies in Cavan, a county in north-central Ireland, during the first half of the 19th century. I show that the ratio of adult females to males was highest in small farm households that depended for their survival on intensively deployed family labour in agriculture, flax-cultivation and spinning. By contrast, households without land or with micro-holdings relied on the income from men's employment as agricultural labourers, supplemented by women's work as spinners. More substantial landholders employed men as agricultural labourers. In both of the latter categories household labour strategies centred on men's activities, with women's work representing an important supplement, whereas in the small-farm category household labour strategies centred on a strategic balance between men's and women's labour input. Amongst households engaged in linen weaving the ratio of women to men was lower across all landholding categories. Differences in gender composition resulted from a complex interplay amongst household labour and inheritance strategies in a changing socio-economic environment.     

Gender composition and household labour strategies in pre-Famine Ireland

This paper examines the relationship between gender composition and rural household strategies in Cavan, a county in north-central Ireland, during the first half of the 19th century. I show that the ratio of adult females to males was highest in small farm households that depended for their survival on intensively deployed family labour in agriculture, flax-cultivation and spinning. By contrast, households without land or with micro-holdings relied on the income from men's employment as agricultural labourers, supplemented by women's work as spinners. More substantial landholders employed men as agricultural labourers. In both of the latter categories household labour strategies centred on men's activities, with women's work representing an important supplement, whereas in the small-farm category household labour strategies centred on a strategic balance between men's and women's labour input. Amongst households engaged in linen weaving the ratio of women to men was lower across all landholding categories. Differences in gender composition resulted from a complex interplay amongst household labour and inheritance strategies in a changing socio-economic environment.     

Lost in registration? Missing occupations of single women in the Bruges countryside,c.1814

The absence of occupational titles for women in historical censuses has stymied numerous scholars. Various authors have explained this phenomenon as carelessness or bias on the part of the census-takers. Women's work was of little interest to the authorities and census officials focused their efforts upon the activities of the head of household. While source triangulation can be a useful tool for uncovering ‘hidden’ employment of women, it is often a complex and time-consuming process. In this article we outline an alternative to deal with the issue of missing occupations of single women in censuses by exploring their living arrangements. We identify four aspects of co-residence that can highlight the roles played within the household by single women without registered employment: their relation to the head of the household, and that individual's occupation, property and marital status. Comparing data from the 1814 population census regarding two social agro-systems and the city of Bruges, we argue that occupational titles of single women were not randomly omitted by the census officials, but reflect the embeddedness of these women in the family economy and household. While we do not refute recent research that stresses single women's economic independence during the long eighteenth century, our findings suggest that for a subset of singles this was not the case. We claim that by studying registered labour only, the historical picture of single women's work is biased or at the very least incomplete.     

西方发达国家劳动力市场的社会管理与公共服务研究

就业与失业问题一直以来是关系经济和社会全面发展的制约性因素。在处理和调节劳动力市场供求关系方面,西方发达国家采取了相应的社会管理政策和公共服务,为有效应对经济和社会发展中出现的矛盾和危机进行了有益的尝试。     

Household formation, institutions, and economic development: Evidence from imperial Russia

Household formation patterns have been adduced in recent years by historians and other social scientists to account for the economic development of western Europe. The so-called European Marriage Pattern, which prevailed throughout northwest Europe, is viewed as having been particularly conducive to early industrialisation and economic growth. But to what extent were household formation systems exogenous to the broader economic and social context in which they were located? Evidence from nineteenth-century Russia indicates that family systems were influenced by the same variables that determined the shape of the local economy; they were part of a complex web of institutions and thus cannot be viewed as independent determinants of economic development.     

The other breadwinners: The mobilization of secondary wage earners in early twentieth-century black families

This study examines black families' reliance on secondary wage earners in Atlanta, GA during the early twentieth century (1900 and 1936). In periods of economic prosperity and decline, two-parent black families routinely relied on the employment of mothers, children, and extended kin to supplement the family income. These other breadwinners had different positions within the black family economy, and families' reliance on them was affected by diverse, albeit complementary factors. The employment of mothers and children was affected by economic need and the demands associated with the family life cycle. The presence of working relatives in extended family households was affected by the age of relatives, household size, and, to a limited degree, the ages of the host families' children.     

EMU and the Shift in the European Labour Law Agenda: From ‘Social Policy’ to ‘Employment Policy’

This article examines the interaction between EMU and the European Union (EU) employment strategy and its implications for law. It focuses on the importance of EMU as a catalyst in the development of the EU's social and employment policy in the years following the Treaty on European Union in 1992, up to the inauguration of a new employment policy in the Treaty of Amsterdam. In analysing the EU's discourse on labour market regulation, it is arguable that a shift has occurred in the EU's position on the ‘labour market flexibility’ debate: that the EU institutions are more readily accepting of the orthodoxy that labour market regulation and labour market institutions are a major cause of unemployment within EU countries and that a deregulatory approach, which emphasises greater ‘flexibility’ in labour markets, is the key to solving Europe's unemployment ills, along with macroeconomic stability, restrictive fiscal policy and wage restraint. As the EU's employment strategy has matured, this increased emphasis on employment policy has come to displace discourses around social policy. This change in emphasis has important implications for EMU since it signals a re‐orientation from an approach to labour market regulation which had as its core a strong concept of employment protection and high labour standards, to an approach which prioritises employment creation, and minimises the role of social policy, since social policy is seen as potentially increasing the regulatory burden.     

Women's bread — men's capital

The family enterprises of small rural entrepreneurs in proto-industrial textile production have been little studied so far. This article focuses on the ways in which family labor assists in entrepreneurial activities and nonindustrial activities within the domestic unit contribute to the creation of proto-industrial capital. The empirical material on early modern Zurich (Switzerland) documents large household economies among entrepreneurs engaging in agriculture as well as among drapers who employ their family labor in weaving or in ancillary tasks connected with the activity of putting out dependent weavers. It also demonstrates an association between proto-industrial entrepreneurship and baking, the latter often being performed by female family labor. This finding is explained by the use of bread as a means of paying workers and by the lack of access to capital markets: baking implies the creation of a surplus value within the family economy that can be directly converted into proto-industrial capital.     

Women's bread — men's capital: The domestic economy of small textile entrepreneurs in rural Zurich in the 17th and 18th centuries

The family enterprises of small rural entrepreneurs in proto-industrial textile production have been little studied so far. This article focuses on the ways in which family labor assists in entrepreneurial activities and nonindustrial activities within the domestic unit contribute to the creation of proto-industrial capital. The empirical material on early modern Zurich (Switzerland) documents large household economies among entrepreneurs engaging in agriculture as well as among drapers who employ their family labor in weaving or in ancillary tasks connected with the activity of putting out dependent weavers. It also demonstrates an association between proto-industrial entrepreneurship and baking, the latter often being performed by female family labor. This finding is explained by the use of bread as a means of paying workers and by the lack of access to capital markets: baking implies the creation of a surplus value within the family economy that can be directly converted into proto-industrial capital.     

Changing household patterns of young couples in low- and middle-income countries

While young couples in Western societies generally form a new household, in low-income societies new unions are often incorporated into existing households. However, there is a growing tendency in the nuclearization of households as intergenerational co-residence is undermined by growing wage labour opportunities that provide incentives for rural–urban migration and because small nuclear families adapt better to urban societies characterized by high geographic and social mobility. The objective of this paper is therefore to jointly study for a selection of low- to middle-income countries the socioeconomic and demographic conditions of women aged 15–34 and their partners in relation to their household patterns with particular interest in the comparison of nuclear and extended households. The analysis will mainly rely on data from the Integrated Public Use of Microdata Series International database (https://international.ipums.org/international/) from which census samples for the last two or latest available census rounds for 18 countries have been extracted. Results showed that women being of older age (within the 15–34 range) and at the same time having attained at least primary school education, having a husband who does not work in the primary sector and who is neither much older nor much younger were all associated with living in a nuclear household. However, individual factors explained only a small part of the overall variation in the household arrangements of young couples, suggesting that differences between countries in these dimensions do not explain much of the difference in household structure. Rather, societal indicators like economic development and the average age at marriage – that were significant in our models – may explain better the overall slow transition towards the nuclear family.     

International Law Book Facility Officially Launched

There has been growing international consensus on issues related to child labour – evident in various declarations, platforms, conventions, programmes of action etc. Child labour is the economic exploitation of children, or performance of any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. Poverty is the principal cause of child labour. Mostly the children work to support their families and also for their own survival. Paradoxically, however, child labour further aggravates the poverty syndrome as it usually deprives the children of education and opportunity to acquire skills for developing earning potentials. Other causes of child labour include family indebtedness, the lack or poor quality of schooling or non‐formal education, breakdown of extended family, uneducated parents, local cultural setting, and consumerism. It goes beyond economic exploitation or hazardous employment to include forced labour, trafficking, sexual exploitation and the use of children for the production and trafficking of illegal drugs. This article will ponder the socio‐legal situation of child labour and the large number of legislative enactments regarding labour in India, as well as their realities on the ground.     

Repression and incitement: A critical demographic,feminist, and transnational analysis of birth control in Estonia, 1920–1939

This article addresses the role of inheritance in the economic well-being of widows in early modern urban Holland. It discusses marital property law and inheritance law, as well as inheritance practices, by analysing marriage contracts and wills. The egalitarian distribution of property and the strong commitment to the nuclear family embedded in law was strengthened by wills. Widows benefited from these tendencies. A comparison with English law points to the strong position of Dutch widows. The legal system enabled widows to continue the household after the death of their spouses and in this respect their situation was remarkably similar to that of widowers.     

Generous provisions or legitimate shares? Widows and the transfer of property in 17th-century Holland

This article addresses the role of inheritance in the economic well-being of widows in early modern urban Holland. It discusses marital property law and inheritance law, as well as inheritance practices, by analysing marriage contracts and wills. The egalitarian distribution of property and the strong commitment to the nuclear family embedded in law was strengthened by wills. Widows benefited from these tendencies. A comparison with English law points to the strong position of Dutch widows. The legal system enabled widows to continue the household after the death of their spouses and in this respect their situation was remarkably similar to that of widowers.     

完善中国家族企业公司治理制度的法律思考

改革开放以来,家族企业已经成为推动我国经济发展和社会主义市场经济体制逐步完善的重要力量.但是,由于家族企业公司治理模式的某些天然缺陷,导致其经营规模的发展受到限制.国家虽然先后出台了一些保护、鼓励和规范家族企业发展的政策法规,但相对于现代公司治理而言,有关家族企业公司治理方面的立法仍显得空虚和滞后.因此,加强家族企业外部治理环境建设,构建市场主体平等竞争的政策法规体系;完善家族企业内部治理规制-促进家族治理向现代公司治理转变,已经成为我国法制建设的亟待解决的问题.     

The urban household in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–2000: Patterns of family formation in a turbulent century

Starting from census data on co-residence and household composition, the authors analyse principles of family organisation and family formation in twentieth-century urban Russia and the Soviet Union. The article uses an adapted version of the classification of households developed by Peter Laslett and Eugene Hammel to study variation in household structure for successive population censuses. Changes in this variation between cross-sections are explained with the help of additional quantitative and qualitative data and are linked to the fundamental demographic, social and economic shifts which took place in Russian society in the course of the twentieth century. The article finds a family system characterised by a tendency towards nuclear family formation, but incorporating a fairly stable element of household extension. Co-residence of three generations was both an answer to a perennial housing problem and offered important advantages in the sphere of childcare and care for the elderly. Variation and fluctuation in household structure are found to be most pronounced during the turbulent first half of the century. After a period of stability during the post-war decades of Soviet rule, post-Soviet transformations provoke new changes.     

市场信用秩序建设探究

市场经济作为以经济利益为中心的行为场,是我国向市场经济体制成功转型,实现经济与社会协调发展的关键。我国目前经济领域中的信用缺失,存在制度性和系统性的双重原因。要建立我国市场经济领域的良好信用秩序,德法兼治是最佳的路径选择。     

Mating (marriage) patterns and economic development

This paper looks at the relationship between economic development and mating (marriage) patterns in the very long run. For this purpose we introduce the Goldin and the Kuznets curves which relate female labour and income inequality with economic development respectively. To some extent, the Goldin and the Kuznets curves have followed opposite paths, which in turn, could illustrate how economic development has had an impact on mating (marriage) patterns, and thus household formation. The likely convergence in mating patterns among hunter–gatherers across societies vanished after the Neolithic revolution. Then, African polygyny and the ‘European’ marriage pattern developed into the most significant exceptions to the traditional dictate of nature “…an early attachment to one woman” (Malthus, 1798: pp. 15). Nowadays, monogamy and late attachments have become the norm rather than an exception.