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Xuesheng You BEconSci, MPhil

PhD Candidate in History

Changing patterns of British female employment during the second half of the nineteenth century

Biography

Qualifications

  • 2009-present, PhD candidate, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
  • 2008-2009, PhD candidate, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge (withdrew)
  • 2007-2008, MPhil, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
  • 2004-2007, BEconSci, Faculty of Economics, University of Manchester

Research

My doctoral research intends to investigate the changing patterns of British female employment during the second half of the nineteenth century. Changes in the patterns of female employment in Britain during the period are poorly understood at present. The existing historiography claims that women's participation rates were low from 1851 to 1911. Moreover, it has been argued by a number of social historians that there was a major decline in married women's labour force participation rates as married women withdrew, or were pushed out of the labour force during this period. A similar claim about single women has also been made. However, the current historiography has never been adequately evidenced. I aim to bridge this gap by employing British Censuses from 1851 onwards to reveal more information on British female employment during that period.

It has been argued that whilst the reporting of non-agricultural sectors is broadly reliable the census reporting of agricultural labour by women is wholly unreliable throughout the period. So census data on female employment in agriculture need to be regenerated before preceding any further. It will be possible to generate reliable data on female agricultural labour by a combination of census materials and farm accounts. Female-to-male ratios in agriculture can be recovered from these farm accounts covering a number of regions with heterogeneous economic characteristics. It is widely accepted that recording of male labourers in agriculture in census is reliable. So it is possible to apply the female-to-male ratios derived from farm accounts to the number of male labourers in agriculture recorded in census in the same region, or regions, which shared great similarities in terms of economic characteristics to re-estimate the number of female labourers in agriculture.

With these modified census datasets I will be able to investigate female employment at various sectoral, spatial levels and over time. Differences in employment patterns of females from different age groups can also be identified. Moreover, it will be possible to investigate patterns of female employment by marital status and husbands' occupations using 1851 and 1881 CEB datasets and the data on married women published in the 1901 and 1911 reports. This will allow a much more accurate assessment of the decline in female labour market participation between 1851 and 1911 than has been possible to date. But it will also allow, for the first time, an examination of the sub-national geography and sectoral and age composition of change over time. This should shed much light on the factors driving any changes. In turn this will make possible a critical re-evaluation of the literature on changing gender roles.

Teaching

  • Economics Part IIA paper: Mathematical Economics, Supervisor, Trinity College