Bardsley, Sandy , 'Women’s Work Reconsidered: Gender and Wage Differentiation in Late Medieval England', Past & Present 165 (1999), 3-29
Quick Summary
The wages of unskilled female labourers remained
consistent relative to the wages of men after the Black Death
- Women labourers earned about
67-73 per cent of the wages earned by men
- Some historians believe the
Black Death resulted in a rise in women’s status
- Payment of workers was
calculated according to their gender, age, skill and health
Key Conclusion
Bardsley concludes that the rate of rural women’s wages relative to
men’s wages remained consistent before and after the Black Death. Surviving
documents from the Westminster manor of Ebury, and evidence from the East
Riding of Yorkshire, reveals that the wages of unskilled female labourers
earned about 67-73 per cent of comparable male wages (p. 29).
Content Overview
The article contributes to an ongoing debate about the economic fortunes
of women following the Black Death. Some historians have suggested that the plague
resulted in a temporary rise in women’s status, while other have argued that
women’s position relative to men remained fairly consistent across the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Bardsley’s findings lend strong support to
the latter view. Central to this debate has been the issue of women’s wages,
and in the first section of the article Bardsley explores this historiography
in detail (pp. 5-11).
Further Findings
The article also finds that the payment of workers was calculated
according to their gender, age, skill and health. While the wages of unskilled
workers appear to have increased relative to skilled workers after the Black
Death, the wages of female workers remained constant. The labour force at
harvest time was structured so that most male workers occupied higher-paid
positions while most female workers occupied lower-paid positions. This leads
Bardsley to conclude: ‘Both before and after the Black Death, women continued
to be part of the motley crew of workers considered second-rate… and paid a
lower wage’ (p. 29).
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