The Recomposition of Women Labor in France following World War I: The Case of Haute-Vienne (1911-21)

Abstract

We study how World War I’s demographic shock reshaped women’s work in rural France. Linking women across the 1911 and 1921 censuses in the département of Haute-Vienne and exploiting commune-level variation in military fatalities, we estimate how male losses affected women’s labor-force trajectories. Women in communes with higher military death rates became more likely to report an occupation after the war. Yet this increase did not reflect movement into wage employment outside the home. Instead, military losses shifted women toward agriculture and away from industry and services. The results show how war-induced male scarcity increased female labor supply while reinforcing, rather than weakening, traditional forms of work.

Victor Gay

Professor of Economics

Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.