Montserrat Carbonell-Esteller
Gender, life cycle, and family ‘strategies’ among the poor: the Barcelona workhouse, 1762–1805
Carbonell-Esteller, Montserrat; Marfany, Julie
Abstract
Poor relief has received less attention from historians of southern Europe compared with northern Europe. This article seeks to challenge the frequent assumption that the strength of family ties in southern Europe mitigated the need for welfare provision. It provides new data for men and boys entering the Barcelona workhouse in the period 1780–1803, and compares these with data from an earlier study of women and girls who entered the same institution over the period 1762–1805. We establish the characteristics of those who sought relief in terms of age, place of origin, marital status, and occupation. We use the information on reasons for entry and exit to ascertain family circumstances. We show that there were significant differences between males and females in terms of why they entered and left, and length of stay, particularly among the elderly. The bulk of the population of the workhouse, however, was comprised of children and adolescents. For this group, entry into the workhouse represented not just a temporary solution to life cycle poverty and periodic unemployment, but also a longer-term strategy aimed at smoothing entry into the labour market.
Citation
Carbonell-Esteller, M., & Marfany, J. (2017). Gender, life cycle, and family ‘strategies’ among the poor: the Barcelona workhouse, 1762–1805. The Economic History Review, 70(3), 810-836. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12425
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 28, 2016 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 5, 2017 |
Publication Date | Aug 1, 2017 |
Deposit Date | Sep 15, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 5, 2019 |
Journal | Economic History Review |
Print ISSN | 0013-0117 |
Electronic ISSN | 1468-0289 |
Publisher | Wiley |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 70 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 810-836 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12425 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1397547 |
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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Carbonell-Esteller, Montserrat & Marfany, Julie (2017). Gender, life cycle, and family ‘strategies’ among the poor: the Barcelona workhouse, 1762–1805. The Economic History Review, 70(3): 810-836, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12425. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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