Family and domestic labour in Lisbon hinterland: Oeiras, 1763-1810

Abstract

The author tries to understand the labour market composition, from a study on the social structure of a parish in the surroundings of Lisbon. His first concern is to stress the quantitative significance of servants in the domestic labour. Although the households have remained as main production units, the wage-earners were a large proportion of the whole labour force. In a second stage, the domestic labour defining characteristics are subject to analysis. The economic, social reasons for the employment of servants in either agriculture or industry are pointed out. Furthermore, the influence of this fact in both the labour force reproduction and the quality of social relations is referred to. At last, the author focuses on the changes that might explain the drop in the number of servants, and the subsequent, increasing domestic labour feminization in the beginning of the XIX century.