Marriage Before Immigration
The stereotypical causes for Irish female immigration tend to be famine, poverty, or following family to America. However, low marriage rates appears to have influenced many women to leave Ireland. 19th century Ireland experienced a change in land tenure that had an adverse effect on marriage for women, especially women of the lower social classes. In post-famine Ireland, "Access to land was a life or death issue for the lower layers of the agricultural community...Those who had it held on to it. Those who were landless were locked out of the system...The pre-famine marriage system revolving around myriads of sub-divided, sublet plots became impracticable" (1). The change in land owning affected young single women just as much as men. In order for families to guarantee their land or their chances of accumulating land, arranged marriages were beginning to replace the more spontaneous marriage (2).
Due to this change in marriage culture, many young Irish women were finding it difficult to find husbands because, "Under the system of arranged marriages in 19th century Ireland, the bride-to-be brought a dowry to her marriage; ideally land or cash" (3). As a result, marriages grew fewer and fewer for women of the lower classes. As many poor women had neither land nor money, the existence of a dowry system, or lack of a dowry, acted as a "push" factor for young, single Irish women to immigrate to America.
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| Percentage of Single Women in 19th Century Ireland |
Marriage After Immigration
While not finding marriages was a driving factor pushing women to leave Ireland, many were not looking for marriages once they arrived in America. Rather, they sought to support themselves. Those who did chose to marry did so later in life, spending much of their teen years and twenties dedicating themselves to their work. By marrying later in life, women could dedicate themselves to their work and finding different work, if available, outside of domesticity. According to Hasia Diner, the author of Erin's Daughters in America, "The persistence of Irish marriage patterns, high-lighted by late and reluctant marriage, meant that Irish women could take advantage of opportunities in fields like teaching and nursing which essentially required that women choose between job or matrimony. Irish women often chose the former..." (4). By having more time to devote to work rather than a family, women were able to show signs of upward mobility in the workforce.
The desire for independence, ability to support oneself, and assertiveness were all driving factors in helping women break out of the domestic sphere. According to Diner, "The same assertiveness in the marketplace which had taken some Irish women from domestic service into office work, from factory to hospital, also helped launch careers as entrepreneurs of various sorts" (5). The jobs women found themselves either leaving domesticity for or taking in lieu of were not glamourous; however, they represented the Irish women's desire for independence and assertiveness. Women may have chosen to become peddlers, which did not pay much, but it was a form of income and they were able to be their own boss. Other women chose to run boarding houses.
These choices to not marry and instead focus on work illustrates a very interesting change in gender values and expectations during the 19th century. The desire for female independence was demonstrated by Irish female immigrants not only by their choice to come to America, but also by their decision to remain single, without the support of a man.
The desire for independence, ability to support oneself, and assertiveness were all driving factors in helping women break out of the domestic sphere. According to Diner, "The same assertiveness in the marketplace which had taken some Irish women from domestic service into office work, from factory to hospital, also helped launch careers as entrepreneurs of various sorts" (5). The jobs women found themselves either leaving domesticity for or taking in lieu of were not glamourous; however, they represented the Irish women's desire for independence and assertiveness. Women may have chosen to become peddlers, which did not pay much, but it was a form of income and they were able to be their own boss. Other women chose to run boarding houses.
These choices to not marry and instead focus on work illustrates a very interesting change in gender values and expectations during the 19th century. The desire for female independence was demonstrated by Irish female immigrants not only by their choice to come to America, but also by their decision to remain single, without the support of a man.
Image Source:
Jackson, Pauline. "Women in 19th Century Irish Emigration". International Migration Review, 18, 1984, 1013.
Sources:
1. Jackson, Pauline. "Women in 19th Century Irish Emigration". International Migration Review, 18, 1984, 1009.
2. Ibid, 1009.
3. Ibid, 1010.
4. Diner, Hasia R. Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1983, 94.
5. Diner, 96.
5. Diner, 96.
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