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  • 2008-2009, PhD candidate, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge (withdrawn)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

Research

My PhD research is to analyze women's work in England from 1851 to 1911 in a quantitative and systematic fashion. I have been mainly working with two substantial bodies of evidence, namely the British published censuses from 1851 to 1911 and a 100 per cent sample of the 1881 Census Enumerators' Books (CEBs). With the published censuses, issues that I have covered in my PhD are female labour force participation rates, changing female occupational structure, regional diversity of female employment, age structure of female employment, and female employment by marital status in the census years of 1901 and 1911. With the nominal evidence in the 100 per cent sample of 1881 CEBs, I extend the analysis of the issues mentioned above to the most detailed and spatially disaggregated level. Apart from these, I also identify the possible bias in the recording of women's work in the CEBs. This allows me to re-construct female participation rates in an empirically reliable manner. Moreover, I also analyze the relationship between women's work and household structure as well as kin's occupation to shed light on the driving forces behind women's occupational decisions.

Publications

Conference and seminar papers

  • 'Women's Employment by Marital Status: Some Evidence from the 1881 Census Enumerators' Books', Quantitative History Seminar, University of Cambridge, March 2013
  • 'Widow's Work in 1881 Census Enumerators' Books', Economic and Social History Graduate Workshop, University of Cambridge, Nov 2012
  • 'Female labour force participation in England, 1851-1911', Women in Changing Labour Market, University of Utrecht, Nov 2012
  • 'Household structure and married women's work: some evidence from a 100% sample of 1881 Census Enumerators' Books', World Economic History Congress, University of Stellenbosch, July 2012
  • 'Married women's work in 1881 Census Enumerators' Books', Cambridge Group Brown Bag Seminar, University of Cambridge, May 2011
  • 'Women's work in 1881 Census Enumerators' Books', Cambridge Group Brown Bag Seminar, University of Cambridge, Feb 2011
  • 'Female occupational structure in England, 1851-1881', Economic History Society Graduate Conference, University of Manchester, Dec 2010
  • 'Victorian domestic ideology and women's work', Ideologies, Ideas and Values during the Industrial Revolution, University of Gothenburg, Oct 2010

Teaching

  • Economics Part I: British Economic History, Supervisor, St John's College, 2011-2012
  • History Part I: British Economic and Social History, 1700-1914, Revision Lecture, 'Explaining Industrial Revolution', Faculty of History, May 2011
  • Economics Part IIA: Mathematical Economics, Supervisor, Trinity College, 2008-2009

External activities