Women's work? : American schoolteachers, 1650-1920 / Joel Perlmann & Robert A. Margo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Perlmann, Joel.

Contributor:

Margo, Robert A. (Robert Andrew), 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women teachers--United States--History.

Women teachers.

Women teachers--United States--Social conditions.

Elementary school teachers--United States--History.

Elementary school teachers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

American school teaching is one of few occupations to have undergone a thorough gender shift yet previous explanations have neglected a key feature of the transition: its regional character. By the early 1800's, far higher proportions of women were teaching in the Northeast than in the South, and this regional difference was reproduced as settlers moved West before the Civil War. What explains the creation of these divergent regional arrangements in the East, their recreation in the West, and their eventual disappearance by the next century? In Women's Work the authors blend newly available quantitative evidence with historical narrative to show that distinctive regional school structures and related cultural patterns account for the initial regional difference, while a growing recognition that women could handle the work after they temporarily replaced men during the Civil War helps explain this widespread shift to female teachers later in the century. Yet despite this shift, a significant gender gap in pay and positions remained. This book offers an original and thought-provoking account of a remarkable historical transition.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

One. New England: The First Two Centuries

Two. South versus North

Three. Migrations

Four. Explaining Feminization

Five. Labor Market Outcomes in Urban Schools: The Role of Gender

Conclusion

Appendix 1. Sources

Appendix 2. Female-to-Male Wage Ratio Data

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5. The Urban Teacher Lists: The Regression Analyses

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612584985

9781282584983

1282584987

9780226660417

0226660419

OCLC:

635292144