This paper analyzes the occupational status and distribution of free women in the antebellum United States. It … among women by nativity, urbanization, and region of the country. While foreign-born and illiterate women were more likely … greater the slave-intensity of the county, the less likely were free women to report having an occupation, particularly as …

Estimated labor force participation rates among free women in the pre-Civil War period were exceedingly low. This is … due, in part, to cultural or societal expectations of the role of women and the lack of thorough enumeration by Census … takers. This paper develops an augmented labor force participation rate for free women in 1860 and compares it with the …

Rates of labor force participation in the US in the second half of the nineteenth century among free women were … exceedingly (and implausibly) low, about 11 percent. This is due, in part, to social perceptions of working women, cultural and … an augmented free female labor force participation rate for 1860. It is calculated by identifying free women (age 16 and …