TY - JOUR
T1 - Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development
T2 - Evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900
AU - Palma, Nuno
AU - Reis, Jaime
AU - Rodrigues, Lisbeth
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper circulated as "Portugal's rise and fall, 1300–1900: a new analysis using occupational and women's data." We thank the members of the "Prices, Wages and Rents in Portugal 1300–1910" project for making this work possible. The editor Marianne H. Wanamaker and two referees provided useful feedback which helped improve the paper. Hélder Carvalhal, Francesco Fiore Melacrinis, Ulrich Pfister, Sandra de Pleijt, Cristina Radu, and Jacob Weisdorf kindly shared data. Carlos Faísca and João Pontes provided access to some primary sources. We are grateful for discussions with all of the above and Victoria Bateman, Mauricio Drelichman, Alice Evans, Rui Faria, António Henriques, Jane Humphries, Oded Galor, Cormac Ó Gráda, Pedro S. Martins, Mauro Rota, Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Xuesheng You and Jan Luiten van Zanden, as well as conference and seminar participants. Joakim Book and Joana Paulino provided research assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/04,197/2017) and from GHES/CSG-ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics & Management, Universidade de Lisboa (UIDB/04,521/2020). The dataset we use in this paper is available online ( Palma et al. 2022).
Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper circulated as "Portugal's rise and fall, 1300–1900: a new analysis using occupational and women's data." We thank the members of the "Prices, Wages and Rents in Portugal 1300–1910" project for making this work possible. The editor Marianne H. Wanamaker and two referees provided useful feedback which helped improve the paper. Hélder Carvalhal, Francesco Fiore Melacrinis, Ulrich Pfister, Sandra de Pleijt, Cristina Radu, and Jacob Weisdorf kindly shared data. Carlos Faísca and João Pontes provided access to some primary sources. We are grateful for discussions with all of the above and Victoria Bateman, Mauricio Drelichman, Alice Evans, Rui Faria, António Henriques, Jane Humphries, Oded Galor, Cormac Ó Gráda, Pedro S. Martins, Mauro Rota, Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Xuesheng You and Jan Luiten van Zanden, as well as conference and seminar participants. Joakim Book and Joana Paulino provided research assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/04,197/2017) and from GHES/CSG-ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics & Management, Universidade de Lisboa (UIDB/04,521/2020). The dataset we use in this paper is available online ( Palma et al. 2022 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2023/4/1
Y1 - 2023/4/1
N2 - Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement it with a qualitative discussion of comparative social norms. Compared with Northwestern Europe, women in Portugal faced similar gender wage gaps, married at similar ages, and did not face more restrictions on labor market participation. Consequently, other factors must have been responsible for the Little Divergence of Western European incomes.
AB - Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement it with a qualitative discussion of comparative social norms. Compared with Northwestern Europe, women in Portugal faced similar gender wage gaps, married at similar ages, and did not face more restrictions on labor market participation. Consequently, other factors must have been responsible for the Little Divergence of Western European incomes.
KW - Comparative development
KW - Culture
KW - European Marriage Pattern
KW - Gender wage gap
KW - Historical gender discrimination
KW - Social norms
KW - The Little Divergence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142416940&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101481
DO - 10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101481
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142416940
SN - 0014-4983
VL - 88
JO - Explorations in Economic History
JF - Explorations in Economic History
M1 - 101481
ER -
