Patterns and types of work in the past

wageworker and housewife from a global perspective

Andrea Komlosy

pp. 37-49

in: Robert Skidelsky, Nan Craig (eds), Work in the future, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Abstract

The modern gendered wage-earner/housewife model of work was established in Europe during the industrial revolution and replaced the "household economy" model. Previously, work within the home was accorded the status of work, while the newer model no longer defined work in the home as work at all. This model spread beyond Western Europe but has failed to dominate in other areas of the globe. The case studies of nineteenth century Lower Austria and colonial India show that this model has met with and continues to meet with resistance. There have been numerous ways of combining waged work, house and care work; in the future work-life arrangements in the family economy could overcome established gender roles by distributing different types of work in creative ways.