Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

Although it does not bring about a dramatic deskilling of the workforce, industrialisation gradually changes working practices as a whole: it affects all sectors of activities – centralized as well as dispersed – and all workers – men and women, more or less skilled. Employers’ demands to rationaliz...

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Main Author: Samuel Guicheteau
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UMR 5136- France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, Pouvoirs, Acteurs (FRAMESPA)
Series:Les Cahiers de Framespa
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/framespa/603
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author Samuel Guicheteau
author_facet Samuel Guicheteau
author_sort Samuel Guicheteau
collection DOAJ
description Although it does not bring about a dramatic deskilling of the workforce, industrialisation gradually changes working practices as a whole: it affects all sectors of activities – centralized as well as dispersed – and all workers – men and women, more or less skilled. Employers’ demands to rationalize conflict with workers’ autonomy. They still try to defend their identity, built on work and based on skills and autonomy. Even though this identity is shared beyond gender and skill differences by most workers, it does not give birth to a collective conscience. On the contrary, workers develop a feeling of loyalty to their profession and the most skilled might even look down on the less skilled among them. Therefore, changes in women’s work in Nantes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are related not only to economic transformations but also to the experience made by the various actors : employers may entrust them with tasks requiring little or no skills at all and workers may fight their competition. Women’s work is thus downgraded. Gender differentiation and industrialisation operate in a complex manner especially since workers’ identity is growing more and more masculine along with the workers’ organisations, contributing thus in consolidating this identity and in the making of the original French path to industrialisation.
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spelling doaj.art-800444f982794fc7a5d808b242043a7d2024-02-15T12:46:40ZengUMR 5136- France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, Pouvoirs, Acteurs (FRAMESPA)Les Cahiers de Framespa1760-4761710.4000/framespa.603Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe sièclesSamuel GuicheteauAlthough it does not bring about a dramatic deskilling of the workforce, industrialisation gradually changes working practices as a whole: it affects all sectors of activities – centralized as well as dispersed – and all workers – men and women, more or less skilled. Employers’ demands to rationalize conflict with workers’ autonomy. They still try to defend their identity, built on work and based on skills and autonomy. Even though this identity is shared beyond gender and skill differences by most workers, it does not give birth to a collective conscience. On the contrary, workers develop a feeling of loyalty to their profession and the most skilled might even look down on the less skilled among them. Therefore, changes in women’s work in Nantes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are related not only to economic transformations but also to the experience made by the various actors : employers may entrust them with tasks requiring little or no skills at all and workers may fight their competition. Women’s work is thus downgraded. Gender differentiation and industrialisation operate in a complex manner especially since workers’ identity is growing more and more masculine along with the workers’ organisations, contributing thus in consolidating this identity and in the making of the original French path to industrialisation.https://journals.openedition.org/framespa/603workers’ identityindustrialisationdowngrading of women’s work
spellingShingle Samuel Guicheteau
Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
Les Cahiers de Framespa
workers’ identity
industrialisation
downgrading of women’s work
title Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
title_full Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
title_fullStr Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
title_full_unstemmed Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
title_short Ouvrières au travail, travaux de femmes. Nantes, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
title_sort ouvrieres au travail travaux de femmes nantes xviiie xixe siecles
topic workers’ identity
industrialisation
downgrading of women’s work
url https://journals.openedition.org/framespa/603
work_keys_str_mv AT samuelguicheteau ouvrieresautravailtravauxdefemmesnantesxviiiexixesiecles