2026/02/03 by Suvi Heikkuri, Svante Prado, Yoshihiro Sato · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Economic Policies and Impacts
paper · pdf · doi:10.33231/j.ihe.2026.01.06
openalex publication_date 2026/02/03 · openalex created_date 2026/02/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Did mechanization affect the employment of women and minors in the late nineteenth century? In this paper, we explore the idea that early factories used mechanization to substitute women and children for adult men to save on labor costs. We use a survey conducted in Sweden in 1879 to build a cross-sectional dataset that consists of establishments across different industries. We show a positive association between establishment size and the employment of women and minors. However, we do not find a meaningful association between mechanization and the employment of women and minors independent of establishment size. Instead, we show that the effect of mechanization was more likely mediated through establishment size. Industry-specific factors also played an important role, as some industries had a long history of being female-intensive.