Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Responsibility, trust and gender in the economic decision-making of peasant households: enclosure in Southwest Finland 1760-1820
List of Authors: Laine Kirsi
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Scandinavian Economic History Review
Journal name in source: SCANDINAVIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW
Journal acronym: SCAND ECON HIST REV
Volume number: 70
Issue number: 2
Start page: 181
End page: 194
Number of pages: 14
ISSN: 0358-5522
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2021.1931430
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2021.1931430
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/67243616
This article studies gender roles in the economic decision-making of peasant farms in Southwest Finland in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century. This is a new perspective on enclosure and a new context to study gender roles in economic matters. Decisions concerning enclosure were primarily made by male household heads. Exceptions to the decision-making norm open up a perspective onto a more detailed picture of gendered responsibility in economic matters in peasant households. The results show that the responsibility of a male head of a household for making decisions regarding the land was binding. Whereas men used representatives in extremely exceptional circumstances only, a half of the female household heads used a representative at least at some point. Both men and women primarily trusted the younger generation when it came to choosing representatives. Women attended enclosure meetings rarely, but when they did, their participation was not questioned. Women acted just like other stakeholders at the meeting.
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