The Woman's Side: Male Out-Migration and the Family Economy in Kostroma Province

Abstract

“It isn't the land that attaches a man to the village, it's the family [rodnye].ProkopovichIn the last decades of Imperial Russia, peasant migrants from all over Russia swelled the ranks of urban dwellers. Impelled by the increasing impoverishment of their villages and the hope of a steady wage, they poured into the cities, some to remain for months or years, others to stay for life. The number of male migrants always exceeded the number of female, although the proportion of women was growing steadily. Even so, the majority of men either remained single or left wives and children in the village.Thus far, the attention of most social historians has focused on the migrant: his relation to the means of production; the extent to which his experiences in city and factory contributed to the transformation of his consciousness from peasant to proletarian. This approach has yielded rich scholarly results. But, with the exception of the work of Rose Glickman, that scholarship has addressed the peasant migrant almost exclusively as male and regarded his relation to his village primarily as an obstacle on the path to proletarianization.

Husbands' labour migration and wives' autonomy, Mozambique 2000–2006

“…Other negative effects of labour migration on the family left behind include higher probability of divorce (Sadiqi and Ennaji 2004), family disintegration and lowered ability to monitor children (De Snyder 1993), more physical labour (Engel 1986), loneliness (Zachariah, Mathew, and Rajan 2001), decreased social support and networks (Roy and Nangia 2005; Kothari 2003), and higher reproductive morbidity for women (Roy and Nangia 2005). Menjívar and Agadjanian (2007) in their comparative analysis of the effect of men’s labour migration on women left behind in Armenia and Guatemala conclude that in both settings such migration tends to reinforce gender inequality within the household.…”

“…Migrants may be sending remittances as a way to maintain ties to and claims on rural assets (Posel 2001). In some areas, migration is customary and normative, and men who migrate or who have plans to migrate are preferred as mates (Engel 1986). In settings like rural southern Mozambique, men’s labour migration is frequent, customary, and desirable (Agadjanian, Yabiku, and Cau forthcoming).…”

Marriage and Militance in a Working Class District of St. Petersburg, 1896-1913

“…He argues that despite the increase in the proportion of female inhabitants of the peasant estate, and despite the reduction in the number of married men who lived alone in the capital, St. Petersurg remained a city with an unusually high proportion of men. Gimmer 1913: 328) noted in 1910 that &dquo;in Russia we have on the one hand a large city with such a deficit of women as could only be found in recently settled states in North America, and on the other hand we find the peasant woman [bab'io] village.&dquo; Indeed, interest in the &dquo;tsardom of the amazons&dquo;-the term was coined by A. N. Soiov'ev-has recently been keen among North American feminists (Solov'ev 1923, p. 1;Engel 1986). St. Petersburg has often been contrasted to West European cities, where women generally outnumbered men.…”

Peasant Survival Strategies in Late Imperial Russia: The Social Uses of the Mental Hospital

“…Once the fieldwork was completed, there commenced an annual exodus of peasant men (and to a lesser extent women) from the villages in search of winter work in the cities (Engel, 1986;Glickman, 1984). The migration of peasant-workers to urban areas had been accelerating throughout the nineteenth century (Johnson, 1979;Vucinich, 1968).…”

“…The migration of peasant-workers to urban areas had been accelerating throughout the nineteenth century (Johnson, 1979;Vucinich, 1968). Not surprisingly its rate increased most rapidly in those regions with the lowest agricultural output, as the local population was compelled to supplement its insufficient earnings off the land (Engel, 1986). However, emancipation provisions restricted the movement of individual peasants and rigidified their ties to the village.…”