Question

"The material conditions of the transition [to capitalism in the first half of the nineteenth century] may have given rise, not to the exclusion of women from the market, but to an expanded dependence on the market labor of women, performed both within and outside the household. . . . Women’s labor tended to be more flexible than the labor men performed—more easily adapted . . . to meet the changing needs of household economies. If anything, the transition moved many women into a more critical relation to the market."
- Jeanne Boydston, historian, "The Woman Who Wasn’t There: Women’s Market Labor and the Transition to Capitalism in the United States," 1996



(a) Briefly describe ONE claim made in the excerpt.


(c) Briefly describe how ONE piece of evidence from the first half of the nineteenth century could be used to support, modify, or refute the argument made in the excerpt.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

A. An claim that can be found in the text is that women, unlike men, had to adopt heavier working hours, as they had to work both outside the home (to meet the demand of capitalism), as they had to work inside the house, assuming long and exhausting working hours, as domestic work continued to be done by them. This can be seen in the lines "[...] but to an expanded dependence on the market labor of women, performed both within and outside the household."

C. The text shows that the beginning of capitalism did not exclude women from the labor market, but became dependent on them. We can refute this argument, showing that in the first half of the 19th century, women received much lower wages than men and needed authorization from their father or husband to work, in addition to having no labor support in case of pregnancy or accidents, which shows that there was, in fact, a discouragement and an attempt to stop women in the work market.