Love capitalism? Thank women.
Did you know that the Industrial Revolution was built on women's labor?
Quick, imagine the Industrial Revolution in your head. I bet you see mills and factories. Steam engines powering machines and trains. Men doing the work and overseeing everything.
But it wasn’t quite like that. The massive shift in Europe’s economy from farming to manufacturing over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—what we call the “Industrial Revolution”—was built on the labor of women.
This is because women spun cotton, made wool, and produced other textiles, the most profitable forms of production for businesses at the time. And because nearly all working-class women were forced to work outside the home back then (much like today).
“When we talk of industry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, we are talking of a largely female workforce,” writes the historian Maxine Berg.
I’m not saying women are to blame for the unequal, violent, climate-wrecking economic system we call “capitalism.” I’m saying capitalism was built on their backs.
Why does this matter today? And why should this matter to men?
Because what happened next created the so-called “traditional” gender roles we’re struggling with today.
Eventually, most women were forced to leave their jobs. With both men and women working long hours, there was no one to stay home and raise children to produce enough future workers for the new, fast-growing capitalist economy. The death rate for babies whose mothers were factory workers was 50 percent or higher(!) in some English towns.
“The result was a crisis, which prompted a public outcry and campaigns for ‘protective legislation,’” in the words of political philosopher Nancy Fraser. “Recasting [household labor] as the province of women within the private family, [capitalism] invented the new, bourgeois [idea] of domesticity.”
Through policies and laws, women were kicked out of the mills and factories. They were told to focus on unpaid household labor, while men focused on supporting the family by making money.
The concepts of “breadwinner” and “housewife” were invented to justify this shift in gender roles. So were ideas about what it means to be a man and woman.
Men, we’re still told today, are naturally and biologically meant to “provide and protect.” We’re supposed to be tougher and less emotional. Women, we’re told still told today, are naturally and biologically meant to care and nurture. They’re supposed to be softer and more emotional.
We think these are “traditional,” indisputable facts that go back to ancient times. But in reality, they were created in the late 19th century to keep capitalism afloat.
Women have fought their way into the workforce and out of their “traditional” gender role.
They still experience pressure to appear and act certain ways. And they’re still forced to spend almost double the amount of time each day than men on unpaid housework and caretaking. But feminist movements have made a lot of progress and improved society greatly since the late 1800s.
Men have a long way to go. Many of us are still trapped inside the cage we think of as “masculinity.”
The pressure to be “manly” and hide vulnerable emotions and avoid intimacy.
The anxiety about showing weakness and asking for help.
The single-mindedness we put on work and career over family and community.
The fear of being truly seen by someone else other than our partner.
The ways of being a man that shape us into workers for capitalism to exploit.
If we wake up to the fact that the cage was made up out of thin air just a few hundred years ago, we might see that we actually have a choice.
Now, a question for the comments below (or email me at jeremy@jeremymohler.blog): How do “traditional” gender roles hold you or your relationship back?
(P.S. If you become a paid subscriber for $5/month, you’ll get my weekly Friday Q&A posts with tips for a healthier, more fulfilling relationship, plus the warm feeling of supporting my writing!)
I have been the sole breadwinner for some time, but also the planner of all things domestic.
I know what size shoe everybody wears and when it's time to size up or replace because the soles are worn through.
I have labelled and organised and stored and spread-sheet-ed kids' clothes and shoes 3 seasons ahead (not just outfits and sneakers, but formal wear, training pants, undershirts, thermal leggings, scouring reviews to make sure I get the brand of rain boots and shoes that allow for optimal foot development and also protect from slips and falls). I cause shorts and (neon for safety) swimmers and sandals to appear when it gets warm, and ensure that warm pants, socks, and boots once the first chill hits the air.
I also circulate used clothes within our community to build social capital with other families, seek out and vet other mom-friends and check in on them so that we can set up playdates so that my kid is properly socialised and exposed to plenty of different types of families that share our values.
I look up and budget for swimming classes, gymnastics, forest activities, and keep a close eye on our child's interests so that the activities we plan suit his needs in each season.
I found and registered us for daycare. I email the daycare with detailed feedback in my HUSBAND'S native language with requests on diapering, rest, quiet time, my child's temperament, celebrating special occasions like festivals and birthdays, and the daycare replies to me and never my husband despite me always adding him in CC. I read the daycare menu and think about what other vegetables, fruits, and proteins I need to include in the three dinners I cook a week to maximise exposure to different nutrients and flavours and textures.
Yet my stay-home spouse is applauded for showing up at daycare pickup and drop-off, "such a good dad!" for playing ball, going to the playground and library, doing laundry, buying groceries and cooking dinner 4x a week, dusting and vacuuming once a week. I keep the household budget, deep-clean the bathroom with organic and non-toxic cleaning agents that I purchased for our family, and spend almost every free moment I have on childcare out of guilt.
And that arrangement is considered progressive, 50-50%, and when I talk about it to others they tell me I'm the lucky one and should not be keeping score.
I love him and I am thankful for him, but I am glad he is starting work next week.
Great thing to highlight! I had heard this before about the idea of domesticity coming in conjunction with the wane of agrarian society. And how interesting that when we focus on life on farms during agrarian society, BOTH men and women worked the land and stayed at home. Families all worked together and lived in their farms (with some variation, I’m sure). So we went from both parents in the home to neither to women only back to neither—though it seems that in some cases of remote work arrangements, we could be coming back to both, too. Recognizing the latter as a privilege.