Beyond the census. Reconstructing Dutch women's labour market participation in agriculture in the Netherlands,ca. 1830–1910

Many historians have pointed out for various countries that nineteenth-century national censuses do not accurately reflect women's economic activity. This was no different for the Dutch national censuses. In this article, we argue that under-recording was especially severe in agriculture, and that this problem increased towards the end of the century. The rise in under-recording was partly due to an increased irregularity of women's work on farms, but it also reflected changing living standards and ideologies, in which work was increasingly defined as undesirable for women. In relative terms, agriculture did become less important to men and women alike because of mechanization and industrialization. Nevertheless, agriculture continued to employ many women, especially married women and daughters working on their husbands' and fathers' farms. By offering additional source material and methods for estimating women's labour force participation in agriculture on a regional level, such as relating their occupational status to their husbands', and estimating the number of days worked, we aim to offer an enhanced methodology for gauging the work of women in agriculture, which may be applied to future research.     

Child-related leave and women’s labour market outcomes: towards a new paradigm in the European Union?

The current European Union (EU) legislative framework on child-related leave is facilitating an imbalance in the take-up of leave by women over men. There is a consolidated EU right to maternity leave for mothers but there is no parallel EU right to paternity leave for fathers. The EU right to parental leave is for both working mothers and fathers, but its design does not encourage an equal take-up by women and men. The aim of this article is to gain insight into the effects of child-related leave on women’s labour market outcomes. On the one hand, it reviews and analyses economic literature which points to the adverse consequences of leave on women’s earnings, and even on women’s labour market participation when the absences from work are very prolonged. On the other hand, it underlines the new direction followed by the European Commission towards greater equality between men and women at home and at work.     

Women who traffic women: the role of women in human trafficking networks – Dutch cases

In the context of human trafficking, women are frequently portrayed as victims, whereas men are usually seen as offenders. In this article, we will demonstrate that women can also fulfil active, even leading, roles in human trafficking networks. Based on data collected from 89 court files in various Dutch courts in 2006–2007, we have analysed the role, tasks, and activities of these women. Assessing their independence, their tasks, and the extent of their equality in relationships with male traffickers, we have divided them into three categories: supporters, partners-in-crime, and madams. We have found that there is a wide variety of possible roles within the framework of human trafficking activities, and that African madams hold key positions in international human trafficking networks.     

‘Women in Church,Men at the Public House’: religious experience in Romanian society, 1700–1830

This study analyzes religious practices in the Romanian lands in the long eighteenth century. Research for it was based on a series of largely unpublished archival documents which illustrate ordinary people's attitudes to faith, magic, superstition and the church. In periods of instability and insecurity, quite understandably, as daily worries become more acute, faith and religion step in to offer spiritual comfort. This study looks at spiritual practices in the Romanian old regime and explores the ways in which women and men used them as focal points for building sociability and solidarity networks.     

The fertility decline in the Dutch province of Limburg, 1880–1960: On understanding historical actors in a constrained environment

The Dutch province of Limburg is mentioned in the European Fertility Project studies because of the fact that its fertility was remarkably high well into the twentieth century and declined only gradually. This article explores the structural background of changes in reproductive behavior in Limburg. The province is economically differentiated in industrial areas and traditional agricultural regions. Also, there is a clear cultural heterogeneity. Using data at the community level, the article analyzes of the economic motivation as well as of the mental acceptation of the introduction of neoMalthusian behavior. The results show that we are better able to explain the variance in behavior as the twentieth century proceeds, and that the factor “economy” appears to be the best predictor, although the effects of a cultural filter become evident.     

What puts women at risk of violence from their husbands? Findings from a large, nationally representative survey in Turkey

A large, nationally representative, cross-sectional survey was conducted in Turkey in 2008. In this survey, which used the WHO (World Health Organization) study module on violence, information about lifetime and current violence (past 12 months) was obtained using weighted, stratified, and multistage cluster sampling. This article describes factors associated with physical or sexual violence experienced by ever-married women, aged 15 to 49, from their current or most recent husbands in the 12 months before the survey. Logistic regression analysis is used to describe the risk and protective factors from a considerable range of explanatory variables. The findings confirm that many factors are similar to the experiences of other countries. The physical or sexual violence experienced by ever-married women from their husbands was 15.1%. The violence experienced by women is significantly positively associated with early childhood abuse experiences of both women and their husbands; marriages decided by families or others; husband's behaviors such as drunkenness, adultery, controlling women's behavior, and preventing contact with women's family and friends. The age of the women, their contribution to the household income, support from women's families, women's acceptance of male authority, and nonpartner violence experience as well as regional differentials also affect the risk of violence. No significant associations were found with the employment status of women and men or education difference. This study, as one of the largest surveys ever conducted on the issue of domestic violence using face-to-face interviews, demonstrated how the patriarchal family structure still affects women's lives in Turkey. This is particularly significant, given Turkey's setting between traditional and modern values.     

Saving male time,exploiting female labour: The woman as the “driving force” in premodern society, 1700–1914

Research on the division of male and female labor during pre-industrial and industrial times has overlooked the significance of the bearing and carrying work done by women in a variety of occupations. The history of the labor force in and around the city of Liege in Belgium provides numerous examples of how women – almost like beasts of burden – carried over long distances bread, coal, and the finished products of domestic industry. In industrializing Liege, they not only took care of the above-ground conveyancing in coal mining, but also often pulled barges through canals and rivers. These activities by women, badly remunerated, eliminated the need for men in these tasks, and thus saved entrepreneurs both time and money. The nuanced investigation of work time, family time, and the division of labor among the sexes, as carried out by Tamara Hareven, has sensitized researchers to questions of this kind for understanding the nature of work in the pre-modern times as well as in the process of industrialization.     

Picking up the pace – legal slowness and the authority of the judiciary in the acceleration society (a Dutch case study)

This paper inquires into the nature of the crisis haunting the judiciary in our contemporary society. Drawing upon the work of Hartmut Rosa, it is stated that our society is an acceleration society and that this puts the judiciary under great pressure. The resulting crisis is twofold since it is both of an organizational and fundamental nature. The focus of this paper is on the – in our view – underexposed latter crisis because of its effect on the very core of the judiciary, namely the legitimacy and authority. The judiciary is confronted with the demand to speed up, whereas the nature of the legal system seems to reject an accelerated tempo and even needs a certain degree of slowness to communicate its accuracy. It is not just the process of acceleration that erodes or at least changes the authority of the judiciary but it concerns a complex interplay of expectations induced by acceleration, both externally by justice seeking citizens and internally by the judiciary’s own management and politics, and how these expectations are met, or not. This is illustrated by a case study on the position of the Dutch judiciary, but holds true for other national and international adjudication as well.     

The Laffer effects of a program of deregulation cum detaxation: the Italian reform of labour contracts in the period 1997–2001

We examine the Laffer effects of the policy of social security tax reduction cum partial deregulation of labour market undertaken in Italy in the period 1997–2001. Laffer effects of tax cut are generally delayed and governments responsible of the reform cannot benefit from the resulting increased revenues when in office. Our empirical findings show that tax cuts combined with policies of liberalization determine almost immediate Laffer effects. In terms of coherent supply-side political programs, the effects of the two measures are not separable. Reflection on our results may broaden the scope of the supply-side policies of deregulation and detaxation.

Trends in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain, 1887–1991

Using the Princeton nuptiality index I_m, we analyzed historical developments in the proportion of married women of reproductive age in Spain. We show the internal diversity in nuptiality patterns and offer an explanatory statistical model based on panel data analysis to identify the main variables influencing these changes over more than a century (1887–1991). We found that Spain has been the developed country with the greatest contrasts in its provincial nuptiality patterns (measured by I_m), although this diversity has lessened over the course of time. We also found that some socioeconomic variables (the gross domestic product per capita and the percentage of population living in cities) do not have a linear relationship with female nuptiality but rather have a U shape or an inverted U shape. This may partly account for some of the controversy that has raged on this topic over the past few decades on an international level.     

Reinforcing the family: The role of gender,morality and sexuality in Irish welfare policy, 1922–1944

Irish legislators had to negotiate rigidly defined gender roles, strict moral codes and contradictory sexual behaviour when implementing welfare policy in the early decades of the twentieth-century. Despite traditional and unforgiving attitudes to male and female sexuality, the debates surrounding welfare policy in Ireland reveal a more complex sexual landscape and an overriding concern regarding child protection and family welfare. Faced with real fears regarding the viability of the Irish family and the degree of child poverty, Irish legislators opted to use welfare policy to direct limited state resources towards the children of vulnerable and/or large families resulting in an apparently inconsistent approach to gender ideals.     

Managing a large household. The gender division of work in orphanages in Dutch towns in the early modern period, 1580–1800

Early modern social institutions were modelled analogous to the family, and work within these institutions strongly depended upon the co-operation of women and men. This type of organization seems to be contradictory to processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. This article investigates to what extent professionalization and bureaucratization took place in early modern orphanages and how this influenced the gender division of work. By analyzing various occupations, remuneration and access to work in three Dutch orphanages it becomes clear that the frequently mentioned characteristics that made ‘typical’ women's work combinable with women's reproductive tasks, were not all applicable and cannot wholly explain female access to these occupations. Work was characterized by an increasing differentiation, hierarchy and, to a certain extent, bureaucratization tendencies. At the same time, the gender division sharpened. However, the late eighteenth century ideology of women as nurturers and the strong analogy to the role women were supposed to play within the household prevented exclusion from this domain.     

When do people report crime to the police? Results from a factorial survey design in the Netherlands, 2010

Objectives  

In this paper we assess to what extent factors of the reporting process affect the willingness to report crime to the police. The focus is on the following factors: (1) duration and flexibility (i.e. possibility to report outside office hours), (2) method of reporting (i.e. phone, Internet or police station), (3) anonymous reporting, and (4) encouragement by police officers.     

Social capital in Scottish and Danish neighbourhoods: paradoxes of a police–community nexus at the front line

Community-oriented social capital strategies and punitive-oriented policing approaches conflict. Establishing local networking initiatives with community-oriented policing at the centre lends itself to an assets-based policing approach, based on honouring, mobilizing and extending the assets of community members. Scholars argue about the need for comparative research on convergences and divergencies across subcultures on the streets and communities. Based on qualitative data gathered from working class communities in Scotland and Denmark in 2014, the article draws inspiration from community-generated theory of social capital to explore the micro-sociology of experiences and understandings about community–police integration policy initiatives. We use this perspective to argue that the building of positive inter-generational and police–community relationships is the result of social exchanges and officers’ use of what we call ‘constructive investment strategies’. Ironically, our insights from Scotland to Denmark also suggest what appear as positive achievements of community policing may instead intensify residents’ negative perceptions of police officers and organizations. In this way, the article illuminates the tangled and conflicted nature of these embedded symbolic interactions, social capital formations and the latter’s form as a potential positional and ‘tribal’ commodity.     

When Love is a Crime: Is the Criminalisation of Same Sex Relations in Nigeria a Protection of Nigerian Culture?

Even though studies suggest that people do not have a choice about their sexual orientation since it is innate in them, some African countries including Nigeria continue to criminalise same sex conduct between two consenting adults. Before the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan passed the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2014 into law in Nigeria, there have already been laws in the country criminalising sexual relations between persons of the same sex. It appears that the Act of 2014 was motivated to show a resolve by the Nigerian government to clearly point out to certain sections of the international community, who at that time were lobbying for the decriminalisation of same sex relations in the country, that there was no intention by the Nigerian state to cave into any such demand. This paper re-examines the prohibition of same sex relations in Nigeria with a focus on whether the laws protect the culture of the Nigerian people or the moral ideals introduced by religion.     

Is breast best? Evaluating breastfeeding patterns and causes of infant death in a Dutch province in the period 1875–1900

In the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, infants experienced extremely high mortality risks towards the final decades of the nineteenth century. It has been stated that infant survival in the past highly depended upon the fact whether a child was breastfed or not. In this article we will reflect on this perceived importance of infant diet in order to explain the high mortality risks of Brabant infants in the period 1875–1900. Using local aggregated cause of death data, a change in breastfeeding practices can indeed be detected. Between 1875/79 and 1895/99 there was an increase in the relative and absolute number of infants deaths as a result of diarrhoea and other digestive disorders indicating deficient hygiene and that fewer infants were breastfed frequently. By discussing differences between urban and rural settings, and between Catholic and Protestant regions, we will shed more light on possible mechanisms for this change in breastfeeding practices.     

Is breast best? Evaluating breastfeeding patterns and causes of infant death in a Dutch province in the period 1875–1900

In the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, infants experienced extremely high mortality risks towards the final decades of the nineteenth century. It has been stated that infant survival in the past highly depended upon the fact whether a child was breastfed or not. In this article we will reflect on this perceived importance of infant diet in order to explain the high mortality risks of Brabant infants in the period 1875–1900. Using local aggregated cause of death data, a change in breastfeeding practices can indeed be detected. Between 1875/79 and 1895/99 there was an increase in the relative and absolute number of infants deaths as a result of diarrhoea and other digestive disorders indicating deficient hygiene and that fewer infants were breastfed frequently. By discussing differences between urban and rural settings, and between Catholic and Protestant regions, we will shed more light on possible mechanisms for this change in breastfeeding practices.