Emma Diduch MSc

PhD student

Fertility Decline and Women’s Labour Force Participation in Late 19th century Derbyshire

Biography

Career

• 2022-Present PhD Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2021-2022 Adjunct Lecturer, Social Science Statistics, Mary Baldwin University
• 2020-2021 MSc Economic and Social History, University of Oxford
• 2016-2020 BA History, College of William & Mary

Qualifications

• 2020-2021 MSc Economic and Social History, University of Oxford, Distinction
• 2016-2020 BA History, College of William & Mary, Highest Honors, Phi Beta Kappa

Funding and awards

• AHRC Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP Studentship, 2022-2025
• William Ebert Fraley Award for Highest Honors, History Department, William & Mary

Research

In this research I construct a longitudinal dataset on women’s life courses in late nineteenth-century Derbyshire using a combination of census records, archival material, and marriage indexes. My research will focus on the textile manufacturing districts of Derbyshire and a collection of archival materials from factories owned by WG and J Strutt Ltd. These not only allow fact-checking of the census’ categorization of women’s employment, but will also allow a more detailed look at the conditions of work – wage levels, occupational segregation, withdrawal from work due to marriage or pregnancy, and education of child workers in factory schools. Linking women across censuses via records of their date of marriage and married name enables analysis of how early experiences of work and family histories influenced later decisions about age at marriage and marital fertility.

Publications

Conference presentations

• ‘Factory Families: Textile work and women’s life courses in late nineteenth-century Derbyshire’. RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum, Royal Geographical Society, London (April 2023).