Search

The stem family was the predominant family in Catalonia in all social groups. Proto-industrialization took place in a context in which this type of family prevailed. In many areas, the man worked in the fields and women and other family members were engaged in manual spinning. In other cases, they were weavers who also farmed. With the advent of factories, there was a transfer of this well-trained labour supply to the factories. The stem family (consisting of at least two generations, unmarried children, and numerous women) allowed the circulation of domestic work between women within the same family and the consolidation of an abundant labour supply and cheap labour that allowed for the feminization of the textile industry with successive technological changes. Female labour trajectories, therefore, were not affected by marriage or motherhood, because the family had enough older women to deal with the domestic work of young mothers. Hence, the family type, and not the family life cycle is the (independent) variable that best explains the female labour supply. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]