World War I and Female Labor Force Participation: The Case of England and Wales

Abstract

Combining district-level measures of World War I military fatalities with full-count census microdata, we show that wartime mortality increased postwar female labor force participation in England and Wales. Women shifted away from traditionally female occupations, while military deaths increased the shares of single and widowed women, whose participation rates were higher. Yet the overall effect of military mortality on postwar female labor force participation remained modest. A harmonized comparison with France suggests that stronger internal migration in England and Wales rapidly dissipated local marriage-and labor-market imbalances, while more generous pensions for war widows weakened their labor supply response.

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.