The wages and employment of female day-labourers in English agriculture, 1740–1850
Using a new sample of farm accounts from 84 farms throughout England, this article provides measures of regional variation and changes over time in female wages and employment in agriculture. Female wages were not fixed, but changed over time and responded to high demand for female labour. The female-male wage ratio fell between 1750 and 1850, except in the industrial north west. In 1851 approxima