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This paper looks at studies which highlight how, in the first phase of expansion of the industrial system in Catalonia, Spain, the greater harshness of industrial work and reproductive burdens led married women to keep their jobs right up to the moment when their wages could be replaced by their children's. They could then devote their time to the non-remunerated domestic tasks that were considered more important than income. Therefore, women's work changed throughout the family life-cycle, depending mostly on the ratio of active/inactive family members. From the mid-19th-century to the first third of the 20th century, Barcelona maintained a diversified and flexible demand for female labor. European historiography has gathered evidence suggesting that employment strategies also changed on the opportunities available to women in the labor market, and on cultural, ideological and institutional factors. The author argues that more research is needed into what underlies the differing intensities with which working-class families resorted to married women and child labor in various places in Catalonia.