Women's Work and Cultural Reproduction: An Analysis of Non-Wage Labour in Central Ontario, 1861

During the mid-nineteenth century, decisions were often made by married women regarding family strategies and the best use of the resources available to them for the cultural reproduction of the habitus of their families. One strategy that not only enabled women to work within the home but also enabled them to help supplement the family economy was the taking in of boarders. Using Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction as an analytic framework it will be argued that boarding was one of many different variations on a continuum of women's work. A sample from manuscript sources of 4,959 married women aged 15 and older who lived in central Ontario is studied to ascertain what kinds of women took in boarders. Urban-rural and ethno-religious differences are explored by comparing married women who accommodated others in the home to those who did not. This analysis broadens our understanding of family structure, family strategies, cultural reproduction and urban-rural and ethno-religious differences in women's contributions to the family economy.