Making verbs count: the research project ‘Gender and Work’ and its methodology

Abstract

Abstract While gender relations in the post-1800 labour market have been subject to much scholarly scrutiny, less is known about how women and men supported themselves in the early modern period. This article discusses the reasons for this lacuna and explores various approaches that could be used to increase knowledge in the field. It describes the verb-oriented method, used by the Gender and Work project at Uppsala University and inspired by the work of Sheilagh Ogilvie. Understanding ‘work’ as ‘use of time with the goal of making a living’, the method consists in systematic collection of verb phrases such as ‘to fish herring’, ‘to sell clothes’, etc. The article also presents the database GaW, which is designed so as to make possible systematic analysis of large sets of verb phrases.