Marital co-operation and economic agency of maritime women: Evidence from the eighteenth-century Southern Netherlands
De Winter, W.; Pannier, S. (2025). Marital co-operation and economic agency of maritime women: Evidence from the eighteenth-century Southern Netherlands. Mar. mirror 111(1): 7-21. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2025.2450956
In: Mariners mirror. Society for Nautical Research: London,. ISSN 0025-3359; e-ISSN 2049-680X
Recent scholarship confirms that early-modern maritime workers were often married, and that sailors’ wives were far from passive economic subjects. They actively developed strategies to augment the family income while playing a role in their husbands’ private trade. Using early eighteenth-century correspondence in a microhistorical approach, this article focuses on women’s economic agency in the coastal Southern Netherlands. Instead of separating household maritime economic activities into a male and female sphere, we examine how marital co-operation functioned by passing on economic information and assembling profitable private cargoes. We conclude that marital co-operation was pivotal for securing a livelihood in maritime communities.
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy
Web site hosted and maintained by Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
Webmaster info@vliz.be Number of visitors: 2708984 - Total hits: 10368086 (since 2006-01-17)
