At work in the fields : an essay into the work lives of nineteenth century English agricultural wage labouring and African American slave and freed women.

History;European history;Black history;Womens studies

Anne Reeves, 1948-

University:University of Louisville

Department:History

关键词: History;    European history;    Black history;    Womens studies;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2195&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

This thesis is a historical study comparing the work-lives African-American and English nineteenth-century, field-working women. It focuses on the ideology and structure of the gender division of labour as it formed and informed the lives of these women. It explores the complex relationship among gender and racial ideologies, social and economic structures and the extent to which the women determined their own lives. It argues that the particular historical, ideological and economic forces at work in England and the South differentially constrained their lives.The work is divided into four chapters. The Introduction explains the study's purpose and explores the historical construction of gender ideology. Chapter One examines the declining employment of English female field labourers within its gendered socio-political context. Chapter Two examines the centrality of African-American women's field work as it evolved within the racial contexts of slavery and freedom. The Conclusion highlights the determinative power of economic and ideological forces on the structuring of the gender division of labour and on the ambiguous nature of rural women's agency.