Sailors' families and the urban institutional framework in early modern Holland

This article points to a largely neglected theme in the maritime history: the important role of sailors' families in urban seafaring communities during the Early Modern Period. At the end of the seventeenth century and during the first decades of the eighteenth century, about 20% of the crewmembers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were married. Accordingly, in the towns in Holland where the VOC was present, many women had to run a household by themselves for a long period of time. The sailors' families were often confronted by emotional and financial distress, which to some extent affected the financial expenses of VOC towns as well. Many of these families were however able to cope because they received material support from various urban institutions. The Company created a system that encouraged sailors to send their money home during voyages, while urban poor relief often temporarily complemented the family's budget. Contrary to other married women, wives of sailors could obtain the legal power to engage in financial transactions, or to have access to inheritances. Town councils, civil courts, church councils, charity institutions and the East India Company were all willing to help the seamen's families. Their motives were twofold: while urban communities benefited from financially stable families, and the VOC compensated for their low pay by offering their employees fringe benefits, the attitudes towards seamen's wives also indicate that the urban elites genuinely wanted to provide some assistance to these needy families.     

Gender contracts in Estonian coastal farming families, 1870–1939

This paper deals with families that lived on the North West coast of Estonia from 1870 to 1939. This period involved a successive transition to a monetary economy for the family farmer and an increasing need for cash to be able to pay rents and debts arising from land purchases. A farm perspective is used to show the complexity of effects of societal changes on the gender division of labour. The study highlights how practices evolve within a specific spatial context in terms of adjustment of gender contracts. It is demonstrated that husbands and wives on farms involved in fishing and seafaring negotiated flexible gender contracts, in which women were flexible and took over men's work. Such contracts evolved when the men were absent from the farm due to fishing and seafaring duties. Flexible gender contracts developed if other solutions, such as hiring farmhands, were impossible to arrange. Small farms could develop a gender contract for collaboration at sea in which women accompanied their husbands on fishing trips. The results, which are based on interviews and archive sources, indicate that the smaller the family farm, the more inclined women were to take over traditional men's work. It is argued that different gender contracts are parallel phenomena and that they often seem to be temporary, since they are evaluated in relation to the standard gender contract that acts as a norm in society.     

The Costs of Surviving Men's Prison Sentences

When men enter prison the lives of their partners change. This paper looks at men's prison sentences from the viewpoint of prisoners' partners. It examines the financial circumstances women find themselves in as the result of men's prison sentences as well as the social and personal consequences. It outlines the survival strategies women develop in the face of their difficulties and considers why the situation of prisoners' partners remains largely unacknowledged by state agencies and policy makers.     

Resistance and compliance in women’s prisons: Towards a critique of legitimacy

This article explores how power is negotiated in women’s prisons. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in three penal establishments in England, the author analyses the ways by which women negotiate restrictions of imprisonment and the manner in which they attempt to resist institutional control. It is proposed that power is negotiated on a private, internalised level, as women often resist the institution simply by trying to maintain an image of control over their own lives. However, this image of themselves as active, reasoning agents is undermined by institutional constraints that encourage them to exhibit traditional, passive, feminine behaviour at the same time as they deny them their identities and responsibilities as mothers, wives, girlfriends, and sisters. The author concludes that women’s modes of resistance indicate that imprisonment is contested and embattled in ways reflecting broader, social norms of behaviour and identity, and thus, that the ‘legitimacy’ of imprisonment rests, at least in part, upon gender. I would like to thank Anthony Gerbino and Alison Liebling for their helpful comments on drafts of this paper which was presented in an earlier form at the Law and Society Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, July 10–13, 1996.     

The flight from cool: American men and romantic love in the 1950s

The article uses love letters to re-analyze current notions about men and romantic love in the 1950s. Examining advice literature as well as evidence from fiction and film, European and American historians generally describe the 1950s as an era of emotional “formalization” or suppression. A newly analyzed set of 300 love letters by over a dozen American men suggests a much more nuanced view. Some of their letters support scholarly accounts of “remasculinization” in the 1950s, displaying a hard-boiled, tough-guy quality to compensate for challenges to men's roles in the workplace and family. Other men, however, openly expressed their passions, fears, and other feelings. Since these letters were written to the author's mother, they also suggest new potentials and opportunities for “personal” research. Given the paucity of love correspondence in postwar archives, professional historians might find personal collections useful evidence to study the character and dilemmas of modern romance.     

THE EVOLUTION OF LAW AND WIFE ABUSE

For over 2000 years, laws have allowed husbands to beat their wives. Until the last century, American law conformed to this tradition. This article traces the roots of American law to English and Roman law, the latter giving husbands life-and-death authority over wives. In the nineteenth century American state courts permitted husbands to beat their wives for misconduct. Pioneering women in the temperance, abolitionist, and women's rights movements first attacked the common law ofwife-beating and restrictive divorce policies. By the 1870s, wife-beating became outlawed. Earlier in the nineteenth century, legislatures had expanded the grounds for divorce, opening an avenue of escape for physically abused wives. But the law still gives limited protection to assaulted spouses, who are more often wives than husbands.     

Poverty and the family-income cycle: Casual laborers in Amsterdam in the first half of the 20th century

Based on data collected from the files of the municipal poor relief institutions, the incomes of Amsterdam casual (dock) laborers and of their wives and children, poor relief, and other sources of income are plotted against their family cycles. The emerging patterns confirm results arrived at in American, British, and Belgian studies: Married women worked for wages mainly in the first period of the marriage, when the children were still too young to earn. For the same reason, families relied more on poor relief in this first period than later on. Only in the second and third periods could families rely (more or less) on their own labor due to the substantial contribution made by their children (from age 14). Wives of these casual laborers worked more for wages (often as charwomen) than did the wives of skilled laborers. Obviously, norms and rules about wives' responsibilities in the home were strong enough to prevent women from aspiring to substantial, or even lifetime jobs, although only a few families in this sample could survive on the males' incomes alone.     

Women in a changing economy: the misleading tale of participation rates in a historical perspective

In this article I focus on women's advancement in the Swedish labour market during more than a century. By applying a long-term perspective I give the historical background to what is commonly seen as a success story. By reassessing census and labour force survey data I show that participation rates may tell a misleading tale not only for the past but also for the present. In a long-term perspective, Sweden does not stand out as a country with high female labour force participation rates. It was not until the mid-1960s that market work came to play a larger part of women's life, since young women worked until they had children and older married women returned to the labour force after having raised a family. During the late 1960s and the 1970s, women with children under the age of seven became an integrated part of the labour force. It seemed as if welfare reforms supported women's market work in an unprecedented way; gender differences in labour force participation decreased and became very small. A reassessment of labour force participation rates together with alternative measures of market work such as at-work and market-hours rates show that similarly to how they underestimate women's market work and contributions to production during the early decades of the twentieth century, they overestimate women's market work at the end of the century, neglecting the extent to which reproductive responsibilities still interfere with women's paid work through absence and part-time work.     

Cognitive and interpersonal factors in woman abuse

As part of a larger ecological analysis of woman battering in Israel, this study examined the combined ability of selected cognitive and interpersonal measures to differentiate among couples in which women were battered and those in which they were not. The ability of these variables to predict men's physical violence and verbal abuse and women's verbal abuse was also executed. Results indicate that a combination of low marital adjustment, high levels of conflict over children, and more perceived self-control over one's life characterized violent men; low marital adjustment and high conflict over child rearing characterized battered women. Both men's and women's verbal abuse was moderately predicted by lower marital adjustment while men's physical violence was predicted by increased levels of conflicts with his partner over child rearing. These findings suggest the importance of marital relationship factors in domestic violence and highlight the need for further study of the interaction between perceived control and marital relationship problems in relationships where men physically abuse women.     

Inheritance,succession, and familial transfer in rural Westphalia, 1800–1900

This article compares property transfer contracts between generations in two Prussian parishes where marital law differed significantly in the 19th century. Our sources focus on two critical phases in peasants' life cycles at the time. Whereas young people could find the resources to settle down, the older generation had to plan for their retirement. Although sons had a better chance of inheriting the farm, female successors were not rare. A peasant daughter's overall prospects of becoming a peasant by inheriting her parent's farm or marrying a farm successor were almost as good as her brother's. The situation for older women, however, was subject to their legal standing with regards to marital property. When couples held joint marital property, men and women had the same opportunities to arrange for retirement. In contrast, when couples held separate marital property and male succession prevailed, older women were at an evident disadvantage.     

Poverty and the family-income cycle: Casual laborers in Amsterdam in the first half of the 20th century

Based on data collected from the files of the municipal poor relief institutions, the incomes of Amsterdam casual (dock) laborers and of their wives and children, poor relief, and other sources of income are plotted against their family cycles. The emerging patterns confirm results arrived at in American, British, and Belgian studies: Married women worked for wages mainly in the first period of the marriage, when the children were still too young to earn. For the same reason, families relied more on poor relief in this first period than later on. Only in the second and third periods could families rely (more or less) on their own labor due to the substantial contribution made by their children (from age 14). Wives of these casual laborers worked more for wages (often as charwomen) than did the wives of skilled laborers. Obviously, norms and rules about wives' responsibilities in the home were strong enough to prevent women from aspiring to substantial, or even lifetime jobs, although only a few families in this sample could survive on the males' incomes alone.     

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.     

Sailors' families and the urban institutional framework in early modern Holland

This article points to a largely neglected theme in the maritime history: the important role of sailors' families in urban seafaring communities during the Early Modern Period. At the end of the seventeenth century and during the first decades of the eighteenth century, about 20% of the crewmembers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were married. Accordingly, in the towns in Holland where the VOC was present, many women had to run a household by themselves for a long period of time. The sailors' families were often confronted by emotional and financial distress, which to some extent affected the financial expenses of VOC towns as well. Many of these families were however able to cope because they received material support from various urban institutions. The Company created a system that encouraged sailors to send their money home during voyages, while urban poor relief often temporarily complemented the family's budget. Contrary to other married women, wives of sailors could obtain the legal power to engage in financial transactions, or to have access to inheritances. Town councils, civil courts, church councils, charity institutions and the East India Company were all willing to help the seamen's families. Their motives were twofold: while urban communities benefited from financially stable families, and the VOC compensated for their low pay by offering their employees fringe benefits, the attitudes towards seamen's wives also indicate that the urban elites genuinely wanted to provide some assistance to these needy families.     

Women in campaigns 1550–1850 household and homosociality in the Swedish army

The article presents the main results from my study of social conditions in the Swedish Army between 1550 and 1850. The focus is on women's involvement and importance in the military. The most strikingly result is that women for a long time played a more crucial role in the Army than many people are unaware of. As a consequence, the unisexual, masculine, compulsory, military service which existed during most of the 20th century can be treated as an historical parenthesis. Nowadays women are permitted to serve in the military as soldiers, in older times women fulfilled their military duties as soldiers' wives. In a long-time perspective, the military role of women has shifted from wife to professional: the article explores this process. Soldiers on campaigns in the 17th century built households and had families, regardless of wartime or peacetime, and their households were also a natural part of the military, simultaneous with a strong male bonding principle, homosociality. Although conflicts existed between the two principles of organization, household and homosociality, they operated together at any rate until the beginning of the 19th century. The article illustrates how this cooperation worked, but also how the rise and fall of the household system in the military may be explained. Military thought, growth of state authority, a professionalization process and changed cultural norms were crucial. However, I want to emphasize the social practice of gender relations as a promoter of change: how norms and measures connected with marriage affected the military.     

UP IT UP: GENDER AND THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF STREET ROBBERY*

Attempts to understand women's participation in violence have been plagued by a tendency either to overemphasize gender differences or to downplay the significance of gender. The goal of this research is to reconcile these approaches through an examination of the experiences of female and male street robbers in an urban setting. Based on in-depth interviews with active offenders, the study compares women's and men's accounts of why they commit robbery, as well as how gender organizes the commission of the crime. The research suggests that while women and men articulate similar motives for robbery, their enactment of the crime is strikingly different—a reflection, in part, of practical choices women make in the context of a gender-stratified street setting.     

The gender warrior: Reformed batterers on abuse,treatment, and change

Reformed batterers were interviewed about their perceptions on the nature of their abuse and how they stopped their abuse. The interviewees were 12 men from a men's counseling program who were nonviolent for 10 months or more. The men explained their abuse as a reaction to their failed macho complex. They viewed the counseling program as a reinforcement for their self-determination to change. And they described the process of change in terms of personal growth, in which they accepted responsibility, became empathetic, and redefined their manhood. The implications of the reformed batterer's perceptions for program development are discussed in the conclusion.     

Early Women Law Students at Cambridge and Oxford

This article examines the hitherto neglected history of the twelve women who studied law at Cambridge and Oxford in the years up to 1900. It concludes that the reason why so little has been written about them is, first, because women's experience has been routinely ignored in accounts of legal education (and in history generally) and, second, because their entry to the university law schools was accomplished with very little fuss or opposition. This in turn was due not only to the fact that the law professors were generally sympathetic to higher education for women but also because the women themselves did not challenge university traditions or the men's curriculum.     

Establishing Connections: Gender,Motor Vehicle Theft,and Disposal Networks

Motor vehicle theft is an offense typically dominated by male offenders. As with all other major forms of criminal activity that are male dominated, women do participate in the theft of vehicles; yet, few studies have endeavored to examine their involvement in auto theft and even fewer have directly compared women's experiences alongside that of men's. This paper examines the gendered nature of motor vehicle theft through direct comparison of in‐depth interviews with 35 men and women actively involved in auto theft in St. Louis, Missouri. By tracing similarities and differences between men's and women's initiation into auto theft, enactment methods, and access to networks for vehicle and parts' disposal, we provide a contextual analysis of offender's perceptions and behavior. The findings indicate that while initiation into auto theft and property disposal networks are both governed by male gatekeepers, women experience greater barriers in gaining access to disposal networks than they do entry into auto theft offending which, in turn, leads to some key similarities in techniques between men and women.     

Women between a new marriage and an independent position: Rural widows in Bohemia in the first half of the nineteenth century

This article discusses the position of widowed rural women in early 19th-century Bohemia. It focuses on women who had been married to full peasant farmers, holders of smaller farmsteads or cottagers. The data collected are based on the method of family reconstruction, which made it possible to carry out an in-depth examination of the background of individual widows as well as of the factors which influenced the widows' future. Results show that in deciding whether to remarry, widows were not determined only by economic or demographic circumstances (their age). Rather, the decision depended on specific life experience of each widow. One of the crucial factors was whether a widow was entitled to managing the farmstead of her late husband and also the number and age of children in the family. Young widows under 35 remarried in 88% of the cases, which was only natural since they did not have enough time to fulfil their maternal needs — 62% of women under 35 had either no child or only one when they became widowed. By contrast, the majority of older widows (61% of widows aged 35–50) decided to manage the farm by themselves, since by entering into a new marriage they would compromise the inheritance shares of their existing children.