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KDI 경제교육·정보센터

ENG
  • 경제배움
  • Economic

    Information

    and Education

    Center

최신자료
Liberation Technology? The Impact of the Sewing Machine on Women
CEPR
2026.06.30
This paper provides novel evidence on how technological change shaped women‘s labor market participation, fertility, and marriage in 19th-century Massachusetts. We distinguish between the sewing machine‘s dual role as a manufacturing technology and as a household appliance. Using rich town- and individual-level longitudinal data, we show that this innovation induced divergent responses across the wealth distribution. Women from lower-wealth households increased labor supply, delaying marriage and reducing fertility. In contrast, for wealthier women, the sewing machine functioned as a domestic efficiency tool, enabling earlier family formation and greater civic engagement while reducing market work. Our findings demonstrate how household constraints and social norms mediate the effects of labor-saving technologies, suggesting that technological progress can reinforce inequality by influencing women‘s economic and social roles.