Gender and Work (GaW)

Gender and Work is a research unit and digital infrastructure (GaW) aimed at recovering and interpreting information about women and men and their work in historical Sweden and elsewhere. How women and men supported themselves in early modern times is being investigated with the development of the so-called verb method and a unique database and by a wide variety of historical sources, legal and other manuscript sources (such as court records, account books, diaries, journals, letters and petitions), paying particular attention to gender, marital status and household position.

The GaW team comprises around ten researchers under the leadership of Professor Maria Ågren (also initiator in 2007). The project has been conducted during three different periods. The first period (2010–2014) comprises an analysis of the gender division of work in early modern Sweden from 1550 to 1799. The second period (2017–2021) includes an analysis of the gender division of work in Västerås and its surroundings from 1720 to 1880.

In the third, now running period (2020–2029), new methods and concepts for a practice-oriented history are developed with the help of case studies from several parts of Europe and based on digital tools and techniques. The aim is to develop methods and concepts that are more generally useful. Another purpose is to examine change over time.

On the Gender and Work website, you can read more about the project, its research questions, results, methods, source material, etc., and access the open GaW database.