When the Light Goes Out: The Importance of Women’s Labor in the Household Economy

Summary

Archaeologists have contributed important insights into gender, particularly in relation to the impact of differences in class, race, and ethnicity.  Studies have challenged the relevance of 19th century gender ideals for those outside the middle class and have explored the ways middle class women’s lives defied these ideals.  The picture that has emerged is one that emphasizes the importance of women’s productive labor and the complexities of real lived experience.  The story of one household in Binghamton, New York provides an example of the complexities of gender as it is lived within social relations and experiences.  The Herrmanns family maintained a household economy based on tailor and dressmaking businesses and boarding.  For this household, it does not make sense to talk of male "breadwinners" or female "nurturing lights" but of labor, relations, and how changes in these related to the loss of female labor led to failure and transformation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 380