HIUS 713-Blog Discussion Thread: Growth in the Post Bellum Economy

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            The Postbellum American Economy was an irregular period of growth and change, both in the workforce and industry. The experience of American women in the workforce has always been diverse, generally drawing a stringent line between single women and their married counterparts. During a period of intellectual upheavals with the ending of the Civil War, the reforms of the Reconstruction period, changes in American Christendom, and the rising issues of African Americans seeking equality now that freedom had been gained. Often this line was drawn in as a means of defining one’s properness, stemming from “their health, their morals, and the sufficiency of the pay of those living away from home.”[1] 

Claudia Goldin states that it was indeed the actions and labor of single women that “shaped female labor force from 1870 to 1920.”[2] From Goldin’s Table: Labor Force Participation Rates of Single Women, 1890, we can patch together significant evidence demonstrating the difference between the number of women in the workforce overall versus those in urban settings. It was typically easier for women to go to work in large factories, where housing could be found cheaply, and a spirit of independence was considered acceptable, much different from rural America’s sentiments during that time.

Women were primarily more likely to seek work outside the home within cities, and a large proportion of black women especially were in the workforce of the urban areas, showing 82% of women aged 15-24 and 67.8% of those between 25-34, presumably lower owing to women leaving the workforce once married with children.[3] From Table I, we can then see the expansion of people entering Domestic Service, education, and factory work growing significantly during that time, where women had traditionally sought out positions, demonstrating the numbers per thousands.[4]

Throughout this time, the American economy was being reshaped, rising to the demand for increased food supplies, mining materials, textiles, and a substantial increase in construction and railway infrastructure throughout the country.[5] Through this expansion, labor was necessitated, and women rose to the ready, many seeking independence and sustainability, others simply working until marriage and family. The American economy was also enriched through the inundation of immigrants from Europe and other places worldwide, all seeking work as they came to the New World. The U.S. “gained 8 million immigrants” between 1900-1910, allowing for further expansion of industry and infrastructure while also moving the economy into a position of “successful” international trade.[6]


[1] Goldin, Claudia. “The Work and Wages of Single Women, 1870 to 1920.” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 40, No. 1, 1980: 81-88.

[2] Goldin, 82.

[3] Goldin, 82.

[4] Lebergott, Stanley and Brady, Dorthy S., ed. “Labor Force and Employment, 1800-1960.” In Output, Employment, and Productivity in the United States after 1800, by Stanley Lebergott, 117-204. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/books/brad66-1, 1966

[5] Lebergott, 122.

[6] Lebergott, 121-22.

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