Women at the helm: economic life-cycles of female-led households in Stockholm, 1800-1880

Today, women’s’ lifetime earnings are substantially lower than those of men, even in Sweden. To understand how modern gender inequalities in living standards developed we need a better understanding of historical differences between males’ and females’ incomes and expenses. Studies on the development of living standards in the past are mainly based on the male experience. We propose a new methodology to look inside the proverbial ‘black box’ of the ‘household’ so the contributions of wives and children will become visible and a more inclusive and dynamic image emerges. We will use tax-records from 19th-century Stockholm to reconstruct how living standards developed for female-led households. Stockholm's Mantalslängder indicate annual incomes and composition of households and thus allow for a reconstruction of incomes and expenses. To add a dynamic element, we will follow female-led households over time and analyse how living standards developed between the formation and dissolution of households. The project will create a random sample of 400 female-led households whose economic life cycle will be reconstructed. These will be compared to previously-collected data of 400 male-headed households. This unique empirical contribution to the ‘family standards of living’ research field will allow us to analyse the development of living standards of female-led households over the life cycle in comparison to male-led households and finally crack open the black box of the household.