Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
The occupational structure of women in Milan during the industrialization period. It discusses the shift from pre-industrial employment in domestic service and garment making to manufacturing and modern services. The document also examines the reasons for the decline in women's employment in Milan, including the availability of electric power and the concentration of industry and growth of plant size.
Typology: Lecture notes
1 / 31
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
URBAN GROWTH, INDUSTRIALIZATION AND WOMEN'SEMPLOYMENT I N MILAN, ITALY, 1881-
Louise A. T i l l y UniversityJ u l y of 19 7 Michigan 6
CRSO Working Paper /I140 Copies a v a i l a b l e^ through: Center f o r Research onS o c i a l Organization U n i v e r s i t y of Michigan Ann330 Packard Arbor, MichiganS t r e e t^ U214C 48104
Louise A. Tilly Department of History University of Michigan July, 1976 *An earlier version of part of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, New Orleans, December 28, 1972. Comments by Peter Stearns, Edward Shorter, Kenneth Kirkland, Charles Tilly, Joan Scott, and Olivier Zunz are acknowledged and appreciated.
for centuries. .Demand for service and consumer products depended on a prosperous bourgeois population occupiedS.in'::the'_tradezand administration of business which were Milan's chief economic activ- ities. This demand for women workers tapped a ready supply of
With industrialization of the city, both demand patterns and supply were modified. As a consequence, over the short run, the level of female employment went not up, but down. In Milan, there was no link between feminization of the workforce, industrialization and growth of the tertiary sector. The Occupational Structure of Preindustrial Cities and a Typology
Urban populations are a relatively small part of the total population of preindustrial economies.. Yet preindustrial cities, like industrialized cities, tend to have a large tertiary sector. Carle Cipolla notes that "in a preindustrial society, the tertiary, or 'residual' group, is also fairly large, with the difference that, instead of including bankers and insurance agents, it includes a
proportion of the unskilled, often part-time,.non-specialized workers in these "old-fashioned", but not always picturesque services: domestic service, work in public accomodations (hotels and restau- rants), personal service (hairdressers, masseuses, prostitutes, public letter writers), street entertainment (flower sellers, wandering acrobats, street singers). Such old-fashioned services have been crisply described as "residuary employment which people do when there is nothing else for them to do and give up when there
3 is.l n 3 This definition is very apt, but it sees employment in such services primarily from the point of view of demand. (^) An important corrollary is that people are willing to do this work because they are too poor to have a choice. Industrialization, with its differentiation and specialization of production, brought about higher productivity. It eventually in- creased per capita income. Then the familiar "modern" services
utilities, finance. The industrialization of cities involved a shift in employment from old fashioned services to manufacrnring-and modern services. What happened in the preindustrial city in this process? Industrialized cities evolved -inseveral ways, each of which had its characteristic pattern of male and female labor force partici- pation. Sometimes, as in the case of most textile cities, new ci'tiesdeveloped in formerly small centers. There, good sources of power, entreprenurial:;skill and capital, available labor and good potential exchange networks came together. There was an early period of heavy employment of women and children in the growth of textile cities in nineteenth century England, France, and Italy. Later, technological change substituted for children's labor; with the devel- opment of-heavy and rapid machines, the work force.becameless pre- dominantly female. Another case is that of the mining and metal working.city,which grew at the location of mineral deposits. Mines have had an almost exclusively male labor force, and such cities reflect this 'sex characteristic in their urban occupational structure.
between t h e 1870's and 1910. The changing urban geography of t h e c i t y r e f l e c t e d t h e transformation of its i n d u s t r i a l a c t i v i t y. Then comes an examination of t h e e v o l u t i o n of t h e l a b o r f o r c e and some of its c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s i n Milan by means of a n a l y s i s of occupational s t r u c t u r e i n t h e censuses of 1881, 1901, and 1911. The t h i r d p a r t t r a c e s women's employment, and how it changed. The.conclusion r e t u r n s t o q u e s t i o n s about t h e reasons f o r change and shows how t h i s urban c a s e study c o n t r i b u t e s t o models based on long t r e n d s and aggregate d a t a. Milan's Urban' Environment The h e a r t of Milan was (and is) t h e q u a r t e r of its two major squares, t h e Cathedral Square and t h e nearby Piazza Scala. This r e l a t i v e l y small o l d c i t y was e n c i r c l e d by an open c a n a l , t h e
stood a t t h e northwest border of t h i s c i r c l e. Sixteenth-century Spanish w a l l s surrounded t h e i n n e r c i t y of bourgeois neighborhoods and o l d a r t i s a n s ' q u a r t e r s. I n t h e e a r l y 1870's t h e commune of Milan was s t i l l t h e r e l a t i v e l y small c i t y con- t a i n e d w i t h i n t h e s e w a l l s. It was surrounded by an i r r e g u l a r l y shaped suburban commune, d i s p e r s e d small s e t t l e m e n t s and farmland, known a s t h e Corpi S a n t i. The Corpi S a n t i were incorporated i n t o t h e commune of Milan i n 1873, forming t h e s p a r s e l y s e t t l e d External D i s t r i c t of t h e c i t y. This External D i s t r i c t o f f e r e d q u i t e a con- t r a s t t o t h e much more.densely s e t t l e d a r e a w i t h i n t h e walls. Much of Milan's new i n d u s t r y l o c a t e d i n t h e External D i s t r i c t , and t h e a r e a was t h e r e c e i v e r of t h e g r e a t e r p a r t of working-class migration, f o r it was t h e only p l a c e where new housing was being
built in the 1880's. The population of the Internal District was more often native born.. The major exception was the domestic ser- vants, who lived there along with their prosperous employers. Economic activity in the center was mostly commerce and consumer production. Although the actual boundary of the commune then lay way beyond the walls, the Spanish walls remained standing throughout the period studied, even as the city changed with increasing indus- trtal activity and physical expansion. Shortly after Lombardy had joined the new Kingdom of Italy in 1859, Milan had built a new railroad station to the north, just outside the walls; it then turned to the urban center to clear the space around the Duomo, the elaborate Gothic cathedral, and the Piazza Scala. An urban clearance program was launched, and the sparkling Galleria was built between the two squares as a monument "from the Milanese" to King Victor Emmanuel, unifier of Italy. This high domed, glass-covered arcade was lined with elaborately decorated walls, elegant shop windows, and cafes; since its dedica- tion in 1867, it has been a favorite place for strolling, impromptu
were torn down to set'off the city hall, the Palazzo Marino, and the Opera House. Nearby, the merchant brothers Bocconi built their large new department store and workshops, joined by arcades to 'he ~alleria. A new burst of urban growth came in the 1880's. Handsome new streets were developed around the Castello. The ~aste.110itself was restored in quasi-medieval style, and a new park was laid out where the drill grounds of the fort had been. In the late 1880's and
walls. Just beyond the walls, several large factories were located, plants like the Elvetica machine works and the Pirelli rubber plant. Close by was another building typical of the urban environment of the poor: a charitable soup kitchen, a yellow brick building decorated with darker orange brick work around the windows. This was.':theO.P. (opera pia) Cucine economiche, established in 1886 and constructed to last forever as a pious service to the poor.. .At the.end of the century, although the city center preserved its urbanity and wealth, the space to the north and south of the walls were filling with new kinds
The Urban Economy
Colombo at the time of the Exposition of 1881 noted there was little large-scale manufacturing in Milan at that time. He explained that there was.no cheap labor in the city, no easily tapped sources of power. What the city did have was an imposing population. This population produced the demand for many(=:consumer,prliducts, to satisfy the many exigencies of civil life, the increased prosperity, the refinement pro- duced by the diffusion of culture into all social classes. Here [Colombo writes] I speak not only of industries which produce luxury objects, but of industries producing objects of basic necessity, to satisfy those needs generated by urban taste and style. (^) 6 Colombo understood that the ready urban market of the commercial city meant that it had an important manufacturing sector.,one which he rightly recognized as largely small scale, artisanally organized. He noted, "one tends often to overlook.. small~businessesbecause they don't employ hundreds of motor horsepower or the thousands of workers collected in huge plants. I,^7
9 Nevertheless, t h e guidebooks t o t h e 1881 Exposition described only t h e 20 o r 30 l a r g e b u s i n e s s e s of t h e c i t y and t h e i r e n t e r p r i s i n g founders. Although r e l a t i v e l y few persons were employed i n t h e s e b i g p l a n t s , they were t h e ones Milanese p u b l i c i s t s emphasized. Colombo concluded h i s comments by r e t u r n i n g t o h i s f i r s t p o i n t s :. 1) t h a t Milan had a s p e c i a l i n d u s t r i a l c h a r a c t e r , and 2 ) t h a t t h e c i t y should promote i n d u s t r y which supplied consumer needs, b u t i n which n e i t h e r l a r g e work f o r c e s nor e x t e n s i v e u s e of motor power were required. H e argued t h a t it would be i m p r a c t i c a l and c o s t l y t o b r i n g t h e needed energy t o Milan; furthermore, any i n c r e a s e i n t h e amount of l a r g e - s c a l e manufacturing would have a b a l e f u l e f f e c t on t h e c i t y. Home i n d u s t r y and small s c a l e u n i t s were d e s i r a b l e , f o r t h e y kept workers separated, * ... "strenghtened family t i e s and [were] a guarantee of m o r a l i t y and s o c i a l peace. ,I^^8 Colombo was one of t h e businessmen who ,launched t h e S o c i e t a Edisonts f i r s t e l e c t r i c generating p l a n t i n I t a l y , and indeed i n Europe, near Milan, i n 1883. The a v a i l a b i l i t y o f ' e l e c t r i c power opened up new p o s s i b i l i t i e s f o r i n d u s t r i a l development i n Milan. The mayor o p t i m i s t i c a i l l y declared i n h i s inaugural speech i n 1885: How Milan was changing: t h e c i t y of luxury and amusements was t u r n i n g i n t o an eminently commercial c i t y , becoming a most a c t i v e c e n t e r of i n d u s t r y and commerce, with c a p i t a l flowing i n t o it. (^9) A s it happened, a long depression followed, b u t by t h e end of t h e 18901s, Milan was growing again and optimism returned. Colombo r e p o r t e d on t h e booming engineering b u s i n e s s i n I t a l y , and p a r t i c u l a r l y , of Milan i n another a r t i c l e published i n 1898. He c r e d i t e d t h e dramatic growth of i n d u s t r y t h e r e t o t h e development
1911 along these broad lines. There was a proportionate (and in the case of domestic and personal service, an absolute) decrease of the numbers of persons employed in old-fashioned services. There was also a proportionate decrease of persons employed in small scale poorly capitalized industry. On the other hand, there was a great increase in employment in heavy industry, construction, and utilities. In 1881, 46% of the total labor force was employed in commerce, professions and servies, 47% in manufacturing.^ L The tertiary sector of Milan in 1881 was preindustrial. Huge numbers of persons were employed in personal and domestic services, and in public accomo- dations, all old fashioned services. Domestic and personal service was the largest single labor force category in the city that year; it employed more than 20% of the labor force. The manufacturing industries which employed most workers in 1881 were small scale and underproductive. The largest numbers of workers were employed'in garment making, which was to a large degree carried out in small shops.or homes. The 1893 survey (cited $hove, footnote 11) of industrial plants in Milan with over 10 employees
garment workers in the city. Small shops for working wood, straw, leather and fur, and food processing contained another 16% of the labor force. Even though there were several very large machine shops, two paper mills and a pottery factory, the work experience of the majority of Milanese in 1881 was outside factory industry. The 1901 occupational census reports show some changes. Then 51% of the labor force was employed in manufacturing, 45% in total services. The largest single occupational category was still
domestic and personal service, but its proportion of the labor force had sdipped by almost five points since 1881. The garment industry was still the second largest employer of workers, but its share had also declined, from 15.4% to 12.6% of the labor force. The indus-
and engineering, chemicals, rubber and glass, utilities, transpor- tation and communications, public accomodations. The largest numeric increase of workers had occurred in metallurgy.and engineering. The 1911 occupational census reflects the economic transfor- mation of the city in terms of scale of enterprise and productive capacity already described. The manufacturing sector employed 55% of the labor force in 1911. The largest number of workers were in the metal and engineering industries; the work force of this industry had increased by 83% since 1901. Garment making still stood second in number of workers, but this industry had increased its work force by only 22% in the decade. The other industry where employment had increased very rapidly was construction, with an 87% increase. The tertiary sector, which in 1911 employed 43% of the labor force, showed a shift toward employment in modern services: utilities., transportation, communications. Domestic and personal service workers were still the largest group of workers in the tertiary sector, but the absolute number had gone down by 11% since 1901. In the same years, employment in the modern services had doubled.
consumers, Milan continued to employ large numbers of workers in services and commerce but modern services eventually came to predom-
and boys under 20. Unlike agricultural and tertiary occupations, these two manufacturing groups also had high percentages of native- born Milanese. The young are proportionately more often native born in a city which is growing by the migration of adults. The youthful workers in Milanese industry were the children of migrants. Age was also connected with .patterns 1. of employment. In 1881, 88% of males and 73% of females aged 15-20.worked;the proportions were almost identical in 1901. Ninety-five per cent of men aged 21-60 ' worked in each census, while for women, 56% in this age group worked in 1881, 48% in 190%. Aging (and marriage) greatly decreased women's likelihood of working. From 1881 to 1901 there was a greater decline of older women working than among younger. Since there was considerable migration between 1881 and 1901, it is not surprising that the native born share of the population declined over these years. The proportion of native-born went down in all categories of workers between 1881 and 1901. More and more of the working population were born outside the city. Yet the migrant workers continued to be highly concentrated in the primary and tertiary sectors. It was not uprooted peasant migrants who worked in Milan's. factories. Workers in manufacturing were much more likely to be native born workers than were workers in the other two sectors. Working Girls and Women What happened to female employment as the labor force came to reflect the growth of heavy industry and modern services? At each succeeding census time, fewer girls and women worked despite the fact that the population of Milan was becoming proportionately more female. The resident male population grew by 82% between 1881 and I
1911, the female by 90%. From a population with a sex.ratio.'of 103, the Milanese resident population was feminized over the years so that the ratio went down to 99. The male working population grew in the same perioed by 75%, the female by 48%. The percentage of females over 10 working went down from 54% in 1881 to 50.5% in 1901, 42% in 1911. Why was there proportionately less female employment in 1911 despite feminization of the population? ema ale employment was most common in certain industrial cate- gories, and those categories were relatively unchanging over the time period. In manufacturing, there was high female participation in textiles, garment making, tobacco, chemicals, rubber and paper. In the tertiary sector, about 30% of professional workers were women; they were primarily teachers, mid-wives or performers. There was little female employment in business or commerce, even in 1911. The really large numbers of women in the tertiary sector were employed.. in domestic and personal service. The female share of the labor force as a whole was between 30 and 40% at the three census dates. Rather than being evenly distri- buted through industrial categories, however, female employment tended to be clustered in certain industries; similarly, certain
the industries which had higher female participation than average "female industries'." .They were textiles, garment-making, tobacco, rubber, paper and personal and domestic service. The inverse of the "female industries" were the "male industries" in which women were less than 30% of the labor force. These included most of the crafts, metal and engineering, construction, business, government, trans-
Industry Per cent of female age cohort working in: Age 15-20 Age 21- 1881 1901 1881 1901 manufacturing (total) 48.9 53. garment making 31.0 29.1 17.4 12. textiles 8.9 10.6 3.7 3. Commerce, service (total) 22.8 20. Domestic service 18.9 16.0 19.1 15.
There was a clear pattern: younger women were in manufacturing rather than service. Older women were very unlikely to work in textiles (almost exclusively factory work) or even in the garment industry. We can assume that those who did do garment work were -@lte Likely to do it in their homes rather than in shops. The percentage of younger and older women in domestic service, on the other hand, was nearly identical. Working in shops outside the home was a pattern of young, unmarried women's work. Older women (who were more likely to be married) worked, when they did, primarily in service... The domestic service category of the census does not clearly separate live-in service from day work such as cleaning and laundry. If that were done, we would most likely find that the younger women were predominantly live-in servants, the older, day servants. Note also that the decline in women's employment propensity between 1881 and 1901 is wholly in the,olderage group. From these patterns of labor force participation by age, two typical life cycles, of urban born and migrant women, can be deduced. The city born woman worked while she was young in manufacturing,
most likely garment making or textiles. She started to work very young, and left paid employment in her mid-twenties with marriage and birth of children. (^) Since the young urban born were disproportionately the children of earlier migrants, whose own employment prospects were poor, children's work was an important resource in these families. Young women and girls could contribute to their family's collective needs in this way. A young woman migrant to the city was more likely to enter service than to do industrial work. Service was an occupation which involved a family-like dependency and control_^ -- (^) But,..^ - more -.posiFik&ly-,^ -.
