In the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, infants experienced extremely high mortality risks towards the final decades of the nineteenth century. It has been stated that infant survival in the past highly depended upon the fact whether a child was breastfed or not. In this article we will reflect on this perceived importance of infant diet in order to explain the high mortality risks of Brabant infants in the period 1875-1900. Using local aggregated cause of death data, a change in breastfeeding practices can indeed be detected. Between 1875/79 and 1895/99 there was an increase in the relative and absolute number of infants deaths as a result of diarrhoea and other digestive disorders indicating deficient hygiene and that fewer infants were breastfed frequently. By discussing differences between urban and rural settings, and between Catholic and Protestant regions, we will shed more light on possible mechanisms for this change in breastfeeding practices.

Analysis of the fertility histories of women born between 1850 and 1900, as given in the Utah Population Database (UPDB), reveals the effect of the number, as well as the sex composition, of previous children on birth-stopping and birth-spacing decisions. Specifically, agricultural and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) households—two sub-populations that might have placed different values on male and female children for economic, social, and/or cultural reasons—showed a distinct preference for male children, as expressed by birth stopping after the birth of a male child and shorter birth intervals in higher-parity births when most previous children were female. Remarkably, women in both the early "natural fertility" and the later contraceptive eras used spacing behavior to achieve a desired sex mix. Although the LDS population had relatively high fertility rates, it had the same preferences for male children as the non-LDS population did. Farmers, who presumably had a need for family labor, were more interested in the quantity than in the sex mix of their children.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may SummaryThe emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands over the period 1812-1922 was strongly influenced by the social norm that women should withdraw from the labour market on the eve of marriage. Adherence to this norm is most clearly reflected in the emergence of the housewife among the lower classes, especially at the close of the nineteenth century among wives of farmers. Women in urban municipalities, however, set the norm far earlier and differences across social classes were significantly larger in towns than in rural areas. Paradoxically, the rise of the housewife did not change work pressures for lower-class women. This paradox is resolved by noting that they substituted registered work for unregistered work, e.g., in house industries, working in the family firm or farm.( The present study tries to make the tacit element in choices -the preference switch to which De Vries refers -more explicit and focuses on the emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands in the period 1812-1922. We will do so with the aid of marriage certificates. The story that unfolds is that the choice of women to withdraw from the labour market upon marriage is the result of three forces: (1) the intrinsic value of household 'products' (health, domesticity, schooling of children); (2) the reputational costs and benefits linked to becoming a housewife; and (3) the effects of choice on one's self-conception, or as Kuran would call it 'expressive utility'. 7The intrinsic value of household production offers the core rationale for the social beliefs about how health and human wealth are created within the household and how labour should be divided. One reason given for women to stay at home was that it was the right thing to do for a mother. What makes our story so remarkable is that women withdrew from the labour market before children were born. This would suggest that the choice of entering marriage as a housewife was driven primarily by social norms.Social norms -the second factor -operate as taxes and subsidies of individual choice and appear in many guises, such as laws, rules of conduct, wage discrimination and subsidies, working conditions, dismissal of women who become pregnant or pregnancy leave without pay, stereotyping, etc. The list of instruments to penalise the efforts of married women to accept work is long and diverse.The third factor is closely related to the presence of norms. For example, a bride may choose to sta...

Until late in the nineteenth century a considerable proportion of Dutch children had lost one or both parents by the time they reached adulthood. This was a consequence of low life expectancy, the high age at which reproduction started (partly due to late marriage) and high fertility within marriage. For the Netherlands in the period 1850 to 1900, the proportion of persons aged 20 or less who had lost one of their parents is estimated between 8 and 11 per cent; another 1 to 2 per cent had lost both parents. Despite the fact that orphanhood was a very common phenomenon in earlier centuries, little is known about how orphans in the past fared materially and psychologically, and our knowledge about the consequences of orphanhood, in particular full orphanhood, for the child is restricted. Only a general impression from diaries, letters, autobiographers and similar sources can be obtained. It is very difficult to acquire information on orphans – especially those outside institutions – from the customary demographic sources. Information on the effects of institutional care for orphans and their ‘institutional careers’ is also very limited, mainly as a result of the lack of good, individual-level data indicating the age, occupation or family background of inmates at the time of their admission or exit.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may SummaryThe emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands over the period 1812-1922 was strongly influenced by the social norm that women should withdraw from the labour market on the eve of marriage. Adherence to this norm is most clearly reflected in the emergence of the housewife among the lower classes, especially at the close of the nineteenth century among wives of farmers. Women in urban municipalities, however, set the norm far earlier and differences across social classes were significantly larger in towns than in rural areas. Paradoxically, the rise of the housewife did not change work pressures for lower-class women. This paradox is resolved by noting that they substituted registered work for unregistered work, e.g., in house industries, working in the family firm or farm.( The present study tries to make the tacit element in choices -the preference switch to which De Vries refers -more explicit and focuses on the emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands in the period 1812-1922. We will do so with the aid of marriage certificates. The story that unfolds is that the choice of women to withdraw from the labour market upon marriage is the result of three forces: (1) the intrinsic value of household 'products' (health, domesticity, schooling of children); (2) the reputational costs and benefits linked to becoming a housewife; and (3) the effects of choice on one's self-conception, or as Kuran would call it 'expressive utility'. 7The intrinsic value of household production offers the core rationale for the social beliefs about how health and human wealth are created within the household and how labour should be divided. One reason given for women to stay at home was that it was the right thing to do for a mother. What makes our story so remarkable is that women withdrew from the labour market before children were born. This would suggest that the choice of entering marriage as a housewife was driven primarily by social norms.Social norms -the second factor -operate as taxes and subsidies of individual choice and appear in many guises, such as laws, rules of conduct, wage discrimination and subsidies, working conditions, dismissal of women who become pregnant or pregnancy leave without pay, stereotyping, etc. The list of instruments to penalise the efforts of married women to accept work is long and diverse.The third factor is closely related to the presence of norms. For example, a bride may choose to sta...