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Speaker: Phillipp Ager

Liberation Technology? The impact of the sewing machine on women

Abstract: This paper examines the transformative impact of the sewing machine on women's lives in 19th-century Massachusetts, considering its dual role as both a manufacturing tool and household appliance. Leveraging variation in town-level exposure to sewing machines in factories and the presence of local retailers, we isolate the technology's influence on female labor force participation, marriage, and fertility. At the town level, we find that sewing machine adoption---in both workplaces and homes---significantly increased female labor force participation. However, exposure to sewing machines in manufacturing led to declines in fertility and marriage rates, a pattern not observed with household adoption. Our individual-level analysis reveals notable heterogeneity: poorer women responded to both industrial and household exposure by increasing their labor supply, remaining single, and reducing fertility. In contrast, wealthier women were more likely to be married and increased fertility following the adoption of sewing machines in the household, and they appeared to use some of their freed time for social activities. These findings underscore how technological change can shape women's economic and social roles in markedly different ways across the wealth distribution.