Structural change of female labour from 1880 to 1980

The studies are part of the VASMA-Project, funded by VOLKSWAGEN STIFTUNG. VASMA is the abbreviation for ´Vergleichenden Analysen der Sozialstruktur mit Massendaten´ (= Comparative Analysis of Social Structure using Mass Data). The project was realized at the ´Institut für Sozialwissenschaften an der Universität Mannheim´ (Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Walter Müller and the cooperation of Angelika Willms, Reinhard Stockmann and Johann Handl. Data used as a basis for this project are the historical and topical official statistics. Object of the studies are the change of the employment system and the business organisations, accompanied by the integration of women in the labour market. Women´s employment is seen as one of the fundamental processes of changing social structures. The expansion of industrial production produced an increase of labour requirements in different industrial sectors. Therefore the recruitment strategy was changed: women now were employed. However, the occupational gender imbalance persisted. (Stockmann, R., 1987: Historisch-Vergleichende Studien zum langfristigen Wandel der Erwerbsstruktur in Deutschland, in: Historical Social Research, No. 44, Vol. 12, S. 124f). Angelika Willms analysed the conditions leading to gender-related typed occupations (i.e. classification into occupations for men and occupations for women). (Willms-Herget, A., 1985: Frauenarbeit – Zur Integration der Frauen in den Arbeitsmarkt. Frankfurt a. M./New York: Campus, S. 14-15). On the basis of demographic background-information the women´s global activity rate, which stayed nearly changeless from 1880 to 1980, is decomposed into single components. Women´s aktivities as unpaid family workers were considered. Questions like how far the women´s labour-market integration was affected by the change of the types and structures of business, to what extent women benefited from the powerful expansion of the innovative and administrative operative subsystems, and how far sectoral characteristics were a decisive factor in this process, were also analysed in this research-context by using ´Gewerbe- und Arbeitsstättenzählung´ (= business- and workplace-census). Reinhard Stockmann analysed the development of occupation, using the ´Betriebs-, Gewerbe- und Arbeitsstättenzählungen´ (business- and workplace-census). (Stockmann, R., 1984: Eine organisationsstrukturelle Analyse der geschlechtsspezifischen Beschäftigtenstruktur. Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Universität Mannheim. VASMA-Arbeitspapier Nr. 41, S. 1-4; s.a.: Stockmann, R., 1988: Strukturelle Einflußfaktoren der gewerblichen Beschäftigung von Frauen im Wandel der Zeit, in: Soziale Welt, Jg. 39, Nr. 3, S. 330-360). The aim of his investigation was to analyse the impact of the structural components ´branch of economy´, ´organisational structure of the enterprise´, and the ´size of the enterprise´ on the development of women´s commercial employment. On the following topics there are data-tabels in the ZA-database HISTAT (Historical Statistics): A. Basis of Data: occupation census - structural change of female labour, 1880-1980 - women´s employment in vita, 1882-1979 - development of the proportion of men´s and women´s employment in Germany, 1882-1980 - structural change of women´s employment, 1925-1978 - labour force statistics in Germany, 1925-1982 - women´s labour force participation in different occupations in percent, 1925-1982 B. Basis of Data: census of enterprises - commercial female labour, 1870-1975