Wives, mothers, and property owners: women artisans in early modern Turin

This article focuses on a petition presented by a Turinese artisan to the king asking to be admitted to the guild of button-makers and to take advantage of reduced fees for the mastership. The text shows that the identity of female artisans was entangled and ambiguous and was the result of a stratif...

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Publicat a:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh,
Autor principal: Zucca Micheletto, Beatrice
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Idioma:Anglais
Publicat: Clio 2017
Matèries:
Accés en línia:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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Sumari:This article focuses on a petition presented by a Turinese artisan to the king asking to be admitted to the guild of button-makers and to take advantage of reduced fees for the mastership. The text shows that the identity of female artisans was entangled and ambiguous and was the result of a stratification of cultural and economic factors. Women were able to negotiate their place in the labor market. On the one hand, the petitioner supported her requests with arguments that explicitly evoked her economic role in the household and made use of typical stereotypes of her sex (namely her role as wife and mother concerned about the well-being of her family). On the other hand, she explained that she invested her dowry in her workshop; therefore she alluded to the risk of wasting her dowry and of becoming “indotata” with the consequent social and economic loss.