Le surplus urbain des femmes en France préindustrielle et le rôle de la domesticité

Fauve-chamoux (Antoinette).- The urban surplus of women in pre-industrial France and the role of domestic service As a result of migratory movements and the differential mortality of men and women, the female population exceeded that of males in most towns in eighteenth-century Europe. The urban centres of Ancien Régime France had large numbers of women living alone, either single or widowed, and who worked for a living. Many of the youngest were domestic servants and came from rural backgrounds. High levels of mobility among young people are a feature of the European family model. The models of the formation of the western family developed by John Hajnal and Peter Laslett identify domestic service as a parameter of self-regulation in societies experiencing population growth, where marriage becomes increasingly late and selective. This schema of demographic and social operation under 'Malthusian' controls usually involves a correlation between high levels of celibacy, and of illegitimate births, and the presence of domestic servants. This article is intended not to reopen the debate on the models of family formation in Europe, but as a contribution to assessing the role of domestic servants - young women who left their homes and went to work in another household - in the formation of Ancien Régime urban populations.