Boydston’s thesis is that excluding women from market labor created a space for men to monopolize production and define it as work, which legitimized their dominance in society. Prior to the industrial revolution, women were engaged in a wide range of market activities such as producing and selling food, textiles, and other goods. With the rise of factories and wage labor, however, women were pushed out of these sectors and into the home, where they were confined to unpaid domestic labor.
Boydston’s main argument in the article is that women have been systematically left out of market research, regardless of the product or service being researched. She provides a number of examples to illustrate her point, including the example of a focus group convened to discuss new deodorant brands. The group was composed entirely of men, even though women are the primary users of deodorant. To support her argument, Boydston cites several studies showing how women’s buying habits and preferences differ from men’s. She similarly points out that advertisers and marketing researchers often rely on outdated stereotypes about women in their research. The primary sources used were interviews and surveys; the author did some analysis on these sources in order to come to her conclusions. This included comparing and contrasting the different data points, looking for patterns or trends, and making inferences based on the findings. The secondary records used include government records and books that only supported her argument.
The article is a valuable piece of scholarship that addresses the issue of women’s market labor and the transformation of gender relations in society. It provides a detailed analysis of the historical origins of women’s market labor and its impact on economic development. The author argues that women’s market labor has played a critical role in transforming gender relations, and she provides convincing evidence to support her claim. The article is well researched and comprehensive, and it will be useful to scholars interested in women’s history, economic history, or social change. This article showed me that even though women were not always in the workforce, they still contributed a lot to society and were able to provide for their families. The article reinforced the idea that women’s market labor was essential to the early development of capitalism and that they have been marginalized and excluded from the workforce throughout history.
Bibliography
Boydston, Jeanne. “The Woman Who Wasn’t There: Women’s Market Labor and the Transition to Capitalism in the United States.” Journal of the Early Republic 16, no. 2 (1996): 183-206. Web.