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1993 - VOLUME 18, NUMBER 1

93.12.08 - English - Jona SCHELLEKENS, Department of Demography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Israel)

Wages, Secondary Workers, and Fertility: A Working-Class Perspective of the Fertility Transition in England and Wales (p. 1-17)

The focus of the analysis in this study is on the economic benefits parents derive from their children and the impact of these on fertility transitions. Particular attention is given to the working class in Victorian England and Wales. The life-cycle drop-off in adult productivity among this class created a need for additional income at later stages of the family life-cycle. This income was mostly generated by children and adolescents. Hence, it is suggested, that not until the substantial rise in real wages during the last quarter of the 19th century could fertility among the working class in England and Wales have started its decline. This hypothesis is shown to be consistent with data on occupation-specific fertility levels taken from the 1911 Fertility Census. (ENGLAND, WALES, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, WORKING CLASS, CHILD LABOUR, DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION)

93.12.09 - English - Donna BIRDWELL-PHEASANT, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas (U.S.A.)

Irish Households in the Early 20th Century: Culture, Class, and Historical Contingency (p. 19-38)

This article explores the place of the Irish within European family history by comparing early 20th century household patterns of four occupational groups (strong farmers, modest farmers, nonagricultural people, and laborers) within a small region of Country Kerry. While shared cultural values unify the Irish patterns in some respects, the different resource configuration of the four occupational groups generate clear differences. Some of the variability is strongly influenced by specific historical factors. (IRELAND, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENTIALS)

93.12.10 - English - Alan WILLIAMS, Department of History, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (U.S.A.)

Patterns of Conflict in 18th-century Parisian Families (p. 39-52)

Using records of complaint to the police and requests for lettres de cachet, this article explores the structure of conflict that existed in 18th-century Parisian families. In contrast to earlier work, it finds that the vast majority of complaints were lodged against spouses, not children, and that it was wives above all who used the state's relatively new coercive capacity in Paris to buttress their position in the family. The article concludes that the impact of the French state on social structure and relationships was a complicated one that cannot be reduced to the reinforcement and protection of those, like fathers, already advantaged by cultural and economic circumstance. (FRANCE, HISTORY, FAMILY LIFE, CONFLICTS)

93.12.11 - English - Norma J. BURGESS, Center for Research on Women, Memphis State University, Memphis, Tennessee (U.S.A.), and Hayward DERRICK HORTON, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Texas, Iowa (U.S.A.)

African American Women and Work: A Socio-Historical Perspective (p. 53-63)

The development of work roles among African American women is discussed using a self-regenerating loop characteristic of historicist theory. The necessity of a multicultural view of women and work is essential in understanding African American women and their families. The use of past circumstances and consequences results in a more comprehensive model for African American married women in the incorporation of the interaction between work and family. Work outside the home as a significant component in the lives of African American women commands careful attention to theories and historical discussions. Different experiences by race in paid employment outside the home have implications for understanding current issues affecting all employed women. (UNITED STATES, BLACKS, WOMEN'S STATUS, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, HISTORICAL ANALYSIS)

93.12.12 - English - Cheryl ELMAN, Department of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (U.S.A.)

Turn-of-the-Century Dependence and Interdependence: Roles of Teens in Family Economies of the Aged (p. 65-85)

This study adopts a household economy framework of analysis and links county, household, and individual level 1910 Census data to explore the extra-household activities of teens living in household economies of the aged. Findings are that the household presence of elder household heads or non-nuclear elders (coresident kin of household heads) had significant but different impacts on teens. Older household heads participated less in paid employment and responsibility for economic support generally fell on male teens in the household. Teens were less likely to attend school. In contrast, the presence of nonnuclear elders in households increased the odds of teen members being in school. Non-nuclear elders, as a group, showed need across several dimensions: economic, health, and social support, yet their intra-household contributions appear to have allowed teens to pursue schooling. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, AGED, ADOLESCENTS, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH)

1993 - VOLUME 18, NUMBER 2

93.12.13 - English - Patricia Van den EECKHOUT, Free University of Brussels, Brussels (Belgium)

Family Income of Ghent Working-class Families ca. 1900 (p. 87-110)

Using an extensive inquiry into the family income of Ghent artisans and cotton, linen and metal workers around 1900, the research reported in this article examines the level and the composition of family income at different phases of the life-cycle. In the Belgian textile centre, Ghent, which was characterized by a low male wage level, married women made a substantial contribution to the family income, especially in the years before children started to earn a living. The family income per person of textile workers approached or even exceeded the income of metal workers and artisans despite the fact that heads' wages were lower: The textile families' strategy, consisting of an increased work effort of women and children, was successful in bridging the income gap. On the other hand, the wives of metal workers and artisans came closer to the realization of the domestic ideal. (BELGIUM, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, WORKING CLASS, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT)

93.12.14 - English - Elyce ROTELLA, Department of Economics, and George Alter, Population Institute for Research and Training, Indiana University (U.S.A.)

Working Class Debt in the Late 19th Century United States (p. 111-134)

Children's wages played a central role in family economic strategies in the late 19th century. The family budgets collected by the US Commissioner of Labor in 1889-1890 show that life-cycle patterns of savings and debt varied by industry depending upon incomes from children. The consumption patterns of families whose expenditures exceeded their incomes do not show signs of economic distress and most families whose annual budget was in deficit could expect larger contributions from children in the near future. These patterns suggest that families used borrowing and saving to smooth consumption over the life-cycle as the earning capacity of the family changed. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, WORKING CLASS, CHILD LABOUR, INDEBTEDNESS)

93.12.15 - English - Antoinette FAUVE-CHAMOUX, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris (France)

Household Forms and Living Standards in Pre-industrial France: from Models to Realities (p. 135-156)

The study raises the question of whether it is possible to verify Rowntree's and Chayanov's models of recurrent poverty and economic tensions during the life course of proletarian families, by using recent French studies on peasants and urban workers since the 17th century. Using evidence from pre-industrial France about the poor, the study examines family size and the amplitude of social differentiation in the rural and urban context. The number of children living at home does not appear to have a negative influence on the standard of living. No correlation was found in Rheims between the appearance or non-appearance of families on the tax rolls and the vital evolution of the family life course. These findings indicate the absence of family-regulated poverty over time. (FRANCE, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, FAMILY COMPOSITION, STANDARD OF LIVING, PROLETARIAT)

93.12.16 - English - Stephen BASKERVILLE, Department of European Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc (Czech Republic)

The Family in Puritan Political Theology (p. 157-177)

The article examines the role of the family in Puritan theology, as expressed in population and political sermons. It does not treat the extensive Puritan household manuals, nor does it argue that Puritan structures on the family were especially unique or original. However, by examining the often figurative use of the family in Puritan theology, it argues that the Puritan obsession with the subject reflected a deep crisis in contemporary family relations and that the emotions produced by this crisis were then exploited by the preachers to create both Puritanism itself and the radical political ideology of the 1640s. (UNITED KINGDOM, HISTORY, RELIGIOUS GROUPS, FAMILY LIFE)

93.12.17 - English - William T. GIBSON, Basingstoke College of Technology, Basingstoke, Middlesex (U.K.)

Nepotism, Family and Merit: The Church of England in the Eighteenth Century (p. 179-190)

The debate on nepotism in the 18th century has developed more fully in the last five than in the preceding 50 years. Within the emergent professions, nepotism was difficult to distinguish from the hereditary nature of recruitment into the Church, the law and the army. The debate on nepotism in the Church has produced contrasting views, one regarding nepotism as a feature of the corruption and abuse that dogged the Church after 1714, the other suggesting that nepotism not only served a specific function, as it did among the laity, but was accorded moral legitimacy by contemporaries. The article suggests that nepotism took its place within the structure of patronage which included the recommendation of deserving clergy to the purveyors of patronage and the nomination of men of talent from the universities to the households of bishops. (UNITED KINGDOM, HISTORY, SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, CASTES, PROTESTANTISM, CLERGY)

1993 - VOLUME 18, NUMBER 3

93.12.18 - English - Arodys ROBLES, Department of Population Dynamics, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (U.S.A.), and Susan COTTS WATKINS, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (U.S.A.)

Immigration and Family Separation in the US at the Turn of the 20th Century (p. 191-211)

This essay provides the first quantitative and comparative estimates based on a nationally representative sample of the extent and duration of family separation associated with immigration to the US at the turn of the century. It uses information from the Public Use Sample of the 1910 US Census to examine the separation of husbands and wives, and parents and children, and compares the largest ethnic groups (British, Irish, Scandinavians, Germans, Poles, Italians and Jews). Of those couples who were living together at the time of the 1910 Census and who had married before immigration, more than half immigrated in the same year. Children were often separated from their fathers, but rather rarely from their mothers. Most separations of any kind were brief, usually lasting less than two years. Some of our estimates are in line with the findings of others while, in other cases, they raise questions about ethnic myths and ethnic stereotypes. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, IMMIGRATION, FAMILY REUNIFICATION, ETHNIC GROUPS)

93.12.19 - English - Linon ZHOU

Effects of Government Intervention on Population Growth in Imperial China (p. 213-230)

This study explores the role of imperial governments in affecting mortality levels and, particularly, fertility behaviours. It attempts to demonstrate the one element in Malthus' population theory, preventive checks, did exist in pre-modern China. Economic rationalism motivated peasants to adopt certain measures under varied conditions which raises doubts about the uniqueness of European societies in this aspect. Due mainly to government relief and welfare efforts, incentives to preventive checks gradually declined, which may be viewed as one more case of the influence of non-economic factors on the course of economic development. (CHINA, HISTORY, FAMILY PLANNING, SOCIAL POLICY)

93.12.20 - English - Andrea G. HUNTER, Department of Psychology and Women's Studies Programme, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (U.S.A.)

Making a Way: Strategies of Southern Urban African-American Families, 1900 and 1936 (p. 231-248)

This article explores family strategies in two parent African-American households in Atlanta, Georgia, during 1900 and 1936. The relationship between patterns in extended-family living arrangements, boarding, and the employment of secondary wage earners (wives and offspring of the male head) is examined. More than one in three households included non-nuclear family members and the majority relied on multiple sources of income. During the Depression, families were less likely to have supplemental income, primarily because of the decline in the employment of secondary wage earners. The strategies examined are interdependent and the patterns in these relationships vary over time. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, BLACKS, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME)

93.12.21 - English - Roger A. WOJTKIEWICZ, Louisiana State University (U.S.A.)

Household Change and Racial Inequality in Economic Well-being, 1960 to 1980 (p. 249-264)

The 1960s and 1970s in the United States were marked by major demographic changes. Marriage was delayed, divorce increased, fertility decreased, and there was a relative increase in nonmarital fertility. These changes led to an increase in female household headship which acted to decrease economic well-being in the population. The changes also led to a decrease in the number of children in households which acted to increase economic well-being. These two household composition changes varied by race. As a result, increased female headship and decreased number of children affected more than levels of economic well-being, the changes affected racial inequality in economic well-being as well. (UNITED STATES, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, STANDARD OF LIVING, RACES)

93.12.22 - English - Jan COOMBS

Frontier Patterns of Marriage, Family and Ethnicity: Central Wisconsin in the 1880s (p. 265-282)

This essay examines ethnicity, nuptiality and fertility in four central Wisconsin counties which typified newly opened areas in the North Central Region during the late 19th century. Frontier settlement was largely a family affair involving far more immigrants than native-born migrants. Central Wisconsin settlers had higher child-woman ratios than their national counterparts because they were more likely to be married and their children were more apt to survive infancy. Interrelated factors involving marriage patterns, religious beliefs, residence and husband's occupation were responsible for the fertility differentials among the ethnic groups within the region. (UNITED STATES, HISTORY, SETTLEMENT PROCESS, FAMILY MIGRATION, ETHNIC GROUPS)

1993 - VOLUME 18, NUMBER 4
Family and Household in Northern European Fishing Communities

93.12.23 - English - John ROGERS, Department of History, Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden)

Nordic Family History: Themes and Issues, Old and New (p. 291-314)

Using a collection of conference papers published in 1978 as a point of departure, the article reviews developments in family history research in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland during the past two-and-a-half decades. Included are those works which either treat the family or household as the object of study or use the family or household to study social, economic, and demographic change. Methodological developments as well as such topics as marriage and the formation of families, illegitimacy, social legislation, family relationships, family planning, and household size and structure are presented with an emphasis on cross-country comparisons. (SCANDINAVIA, HISTORY, FAMILY, HOUSEHOLD, RESEARCH)

93.12.24 - English - Gisli Agust GUNNLAUGSSON and Loftur GUTTORMSSON, Department of History, Iceland's University College of Education (Iceland)

Household Structure and Urbanization in Three Icelandic Fishing Districts, 1880-1930 (p. 315-340)

During the period 1880-1930 Iceland was transformed from a society dominated by rural farming to an urbanized society heavily dependent on fishing and fish processing. This article examines the effects of this development on demographic behavior and household structure in three geographically distinct coastal districts with economies based on different types of fishing. Urbanization and the growth of the fishing industry increased marriage prospects and reduced the mean age at marriage. For most of the period fertility in the three districts exceeded the national average. However, the same also applied to infant mortality and mortality in general. Kinship and friendship networks appear to have played an important role in the growing fishing towns. Household structure in the districts varied considerably before 1880 and was largely influenced by the labor requirement of different types of fishing. In contrast, household structure was fairly similar in the three towns in 1930 and did not exhibit any distinctive features which could be identified as directly influenced by the labor requirements of fishing. (ICELAND, HISTORY, FISHERMEN, URBANIZATION, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION)

93.12.25 - English - Stale DYRVIK, Department of History, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen (Norway)

Farmers at Sea: A Study of Fishermen in North Norway, 1801-1920 (p. 341-356)

This investigation encompasses three coastal communities in North Norway. They are all associated to varying degrees with the cod fisheries in the Lofoten Islands, and comparisons among them reveal how this fishing created various types of household organization. However, difficulties arise because it is not the fisherman, but rather the fisherman-farmer that is typical in the region. Concealed in this combination of livelihoods is a life-cycle pattern: youths participated very actively in fishing, adults less so and the elderly hardly at all. The households of the traditional full-time fishermen were small and simple in structure. The households of fishermen-farmers were larger and more complex. The organization of labor in the fisheries cut across household boundaries. Only during the final decade of the period investigated are full-time fishermen distinguishable to any significant degree in the three local communities. At the same time differences in household structure begin to rapidly level out. (NORWAY, HISTORY, FISHERMEN, FARMERS, HOUSEHOLD)

93.12.26 - English - Hans Chr. JOHANSEN, Department of Economic and Social History, University of Odense (Danemark), Per MADSEN and Ole DEGN

Fishing Families in Three Danish Coastal Communities (p. 357-368)

Earlier studies of population in Denmark have dealt mainly with demographic behavior in rural areas that depended on agriculture and where restricted access to limited resources resulted in very high ages at first marriage and small average household size. This study concentrates on another agrarian variant - fishing communities. Developments in three coastal communities were analyzed for the period 1787-1901. The inhabitants lived mainly from fishing. Given the technology of the day, this was an occupation with nearly unlimited resources. Furthermore, there were no legal restrictions on the partitioning of land in the hamlets on the coast or on fishing in nearby coastal waters. These conditions resulted in earlier marriages, but not in a different family type. Young people in the hamlets established their own households when they married, and fishermen conformed to the nuclear family pattern dominant in the Nordic countries. (DENMARK, HISTORY, FISHERMEN, NUCLEAR FAMILY)

93.12.27 - English - John ROGERS, Department of History, Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden), and Lars-Göran TEDEBRAND, Department of Historical Demography, Centre for Population Studies, Umea University, Umea (Sweden)

Living by the Sea: Farming and Fishing in Sweden from the Late 18th to the Early 20th Century (p. 369-393)

Using the northwestern European household and family pattern as a backdrop, household and family structures were studied in four coastal regions in Sweden during the 19th century. Each area represented a variant of a maritime ecotype. Mean household size and a simple family structure were found in three areas, although economic circumstances differed significantly. True fishermen lived in Gullholmen, fishermen-farmers in Hasslö, and farmer-fishermen in Tynderö. In Hallnäs average household size was relatively small, although complex family structures were common. A diversified local economy of which fishing was only one component gave rise to this pattern. The involvement of the state in restricting access to resources and/or restricting property management was found to be a key factor in explaining why some areas developed similar patterns despite varying economies. (SWEDEN, HISTORY, FISHERMEN, FARMERS, FAMILY, HOUSEHOLD)

93.12.28 - English - Beatrice MORING, Renvall Institute of Historical Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland)

Household and Family in Finnish Coastal Societies, 1635-1895 (p. 395-414)

The aim of this study is to analyze in a long-term perspective the transition from a basically patrilocal and extended household system to a neolocal and nuclear system in a number of coastal communities subjected to legal and economic constraints. Several parishes located in the archipelago of southwestern Finland have been studied for the period 1635-1895 to determine the impact of the abolition of various restrictions on family and household formation and composition, population development, and demographic change. (FINLAND, HISTORY, HOUSEHOLD, FAMILY, TRANSITIONAL SOCIETY)

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