Early modern working women. The Dutch case in international perspective

Report of the session at the Fifth ESSHC, Berlin, 2004

In March 2004 the research project was participating in the Fifth European Social Science History Conference in Berlin. In the session 'Early modern working women. The Dutch case in international perspective', which was entirely devoted to the ISSH research project, first results were presented for an international audience. Amy Erickson (London) was invited to chair the session and Maria Ågren (University of Uppsala) acted as discussant.

Four of the researchers involved in the project presented a paper. The main focus of the four different papers was a comparison of the situation of working women in the Dutch Republic with the situation elsewhere in Europe, and mainly in England. Ariadne Schmidt focused on the two contrasting stereotypes that exist on Dutch women in the early modern period: 'active merchants' or 'heroic housewives'. By taking a closer look on several tax registers she tried to find out which of these two images of Dutch women was more close to the historical truth. Finally, Ariadne Schmidt concluded that the two types might have coexisted.

Danielle van den Heuvel took a closer look at the presupposed favourable circumstances for women's work in commerce. To decisive factors mentioned by Anne Laurence - seafaring, trading, urbanization and a legal right for women to trade - Danielle van den Heuvel added three additional factors: the amount of women living alone in other than port towns, the importance of the nuclear family and the lowering of pressure on poor relief.

Marjolein van Dekken presented her research on brewsters in the city of Haarlem and compared their position with women working in the same profession in England. She concluded that Haarlem brewsters faced little restrictions to perform their jobs. They brewed on average as much as men, they formed a substantial number among the brewers and the women continued brewing for a considerable period. In England however, from the sixteenth century onward female brewers faced an increasing amount of (guild)restrictions which, in the end, forced them to leave the profession.

In her presentation Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk showed that assumptions on the strict gendered division of labour in the textile industry have to be reconsidered. For instance, men are thought to have started spinning at the time spinning got mechanised in the nineteenth century. Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk showed that in the Dutch Republic men were already spinning in the seventeenth century. Her research makes clear that the coexisting of different forms of organization of production shaped gender roles in textiles. On the other hand gender roles were influencing the organization of production as well. The session was well visited and the audience was full of interesting comments, which made the discussion afterwards very fruitful. For a visual impression please view the photographs below.
Text: Danielle van den Heuvel and Marjolein van Dekken

Danielle van den Heuvel presenting her paper

Marjolein van Dekken presenting her paper

Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk presenting her paper

Audience at the session 'Early modern working women. The Dutch
case in international perspective'