The topic of this study is “A Working Woman in Eighteenth-Century Vilnius: Possibilities and The Character of Work”. The aim of this study is to analyse the labour possibilities and character for 18th century women in Vilnius. In order to reveal these aspects the following issues were explored: ascertainment of the nature of women’s labour; ascertainment of the wages payed and wage dynamics for women’s labour; ascertainment of the social status and marital status of women part of the working women. In the 18th century women’s labour can be ascribed to the “service sector”. This type of labour was mostly unqualified work and did not require a lot of physical strength and can be divided into two categories – hire and trade.
The duration of hired work was varied. The wages for women who worked for hire in short durations was calculated by day. Such hire work can be characterized as being seasonal and is observed in agricultural labour, which women were hired for during summer and autumn. Women serving in convents were hired for long-term labour. They worked and lived in these institutions all year long. While serving in convents women carried out the same jobs as maids working on private household properties (various household chores). These women were not paid with money alone because the institutions provided them with tenancy, maintenance, clothing and foot-wear as well.
The specifics of labour for women working as wet-nurses differed from other labour workers. This type of labour could only be performed by women who had recently had given birth to their own children and were not discouraged by the risks that came with nursing foundlings.
Women’s wages were usually lower than men’s and they sometimes got paid more than double the amount of women’s wages. The highest wages were paid out to wet-nurses because of the high health risks that came with nursing children abandoned by their parents. A stable income was guaranteed for women who were serving in convents and working as wet-nurses. Women working for short-term hire got paid with one-off payments and only once they have completed their tasks [job]. However, single-day labour work wages were higher. It is unknown how much money women in trade were making. However it is known that they made up 35 to 90 percent of the city’s official tax paying traders. These statistics reveal that women were trading various products – from shoes to various metal objects as well as food and vegetables.
The type of labour force women were a part of could have also been determined by their marital status. Unmarried, young aged women most often served in convents and older women with families tended to favour short-term work for hire. Trade was favoured most often by married women (or widows), who could sell not just their home-made food products and home-grown fruits and vegetables but also their artisan spouse’s (or parents) produced ware at local market places.