Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T21:26:33.674Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender and the “Laws of Migration”

A Reconsideration of Nineteenth-Century Patterns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

J. Trent Alexander  and
Annemarie Steidl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ernest George Ravenstein’s influential “laws of migration” argued that short-distance and within-country moves were typically dominated by women. We use census microdata to take a fresh look at the relationship between gender and internal migration in late nineteenth-century Europe and North America. We argue that there was a significant flaw in Ravenstein’s key finding on gender and that this flaw has implications for more recent scholarship of the long-term “feminization of migration.” The apparent overrepresentation of women among internal migrants was due not to their higher propensity to move but to the much higher rate at which male migrants left the population, through either death or emigration. Men were just as likely to make internal moves as women were; the difference was that men did not remain in the population to be counted when the decennial census was conducted. Like Ravenstein’s “laws of migration,” this article relies primarily on data from the 1881 census of England and Wales. Whereas Ravenstein’s work was constrained by the contents of tables published by the UK Census Office in the 1880s, we are able to ask new questions by analyzing individual-level data files recently made available by the North Atlantic Population Project.

Type
Special Section: Gender Ratios and International Migration
Information
Social Science History , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , Summer 2012 , pp. 223 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baines, Dudley (1985) Migration in a Mature Economy: Emigration and Internal Migration in England and Wales, 1861–1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boyer, George R.Hatton, Timothy J. (1997) “Migration and the labour market integration in late nineteenth-century England and Wales.” Economic History Review 50 (4): 697–734.Google Scholar
Boyle, Paul J.Halfacree, Keith H. (1995) “Service class migration in England and Wales, 1980–1981: Identifying gender-specific mobility patterns.” Regional Studies 29 (1): 43–57.Google Scholar
Census Office (1883) Census of England and Wales: Vols. 1 and 3, 1881. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
Cole, John (1989) “Internal migration in Peru.” Geography Review 3 (1): 25–31.Google Scholar
Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (1901) Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia. Melbourne: McCarron, Bird.Google Scholar
DadelszenE. J., von E. J., von (1893) Report on the Results of a Census of the Colony of New Zealand. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
Donato, Katharine M.Alexander, J. TrentGabaccia, DonnaLeinonen, Johanna (2011) “Variations in the gender composition of migrant populations: How they matter.” International Migration Review 45 (3): 495–526.Google Scholar
Donato, Katharine M.Gabaccia, DonnaHoldaway, JenniferManalansan, Martin IVPessar, Patricia R. (2006) “A glass half full? Gender in migration studies.” International Migration Review 40 (1): 3–26.Google Scholar
Dorigo, GuidoTobler, Waldo (1983) “Push-pull migration laws.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 73 (1): 1–17.Google Scholar
Fauve-Chamoux, Antoinette, ed. (2005) Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity, 16th–21st Centuries. Bern: Lang.Google Scholar
Foner, NancyRumbaut, Ruben G.Gold, Steven J., eds. (2000) Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspective. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Froide, Amy M. (2001) “Old maids: The lifecycle of single women in early modern England,” in Bothelho, LynnThane, Pat (eds.) Women and Ageing in British Society since 1500. London: Longman: 89–110.Google Scholar
Gabaccia, Donna (1996) “Women of the mass migrations: From minority to majority, 1820–1930,” in Hoerder, DirkMoch, Leslie Page (eds.) European Migrants: Global and Local Perspectives. Boston: Northeastern University Press: 90–111.Google Scholar
Grandstaff, Peter J. (1975) “Recent Soviet experience and Western ‘laws’ of population migration.” International Migration Review 9 (4): 479–97.Google Scholar
Grigg, D. B. (1977) “E. G. Ravenstein and the ‘laws of migration.’” Journal of Historical Geography 3 (1): 41–54.Google Scholar
Houstoun, MarionKramer, Roger G.Barrett, Joan Mackin (1984) “Female predominance of immigration to the United States since 1930: A first look.” International Migration Review 18 (4): 908–63.Google Scholar
Keltie, John Scott (1883) Statesman’s Yearbook: Statistical and Historical Annual of the Civilized World. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kussmaul, Ann (1981) Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lancaster, Henry Oliver (1990) Expectations of Life: A Study in the Demography, Statistics, and History of World Mortality. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Lee, Everett S. (1966) “A theory of migration.” Demography 3 (1): 47–57.Google Scholar
Macisco, John J. Jr.Pryor, Edward T. Jr. (1963) “A reappraisal of Ravenstein’s ‘laws’ of migration: A review of selected studies of internal migration in the United States.” American Catholic Sociological Review 24 (3): 211–21.Google Scholar
Meyerowitz, Joanne (1987) “Women and migration: Autonomous female migrants to Chicago, 1880–1930.” Journal of Urban History 13 (2): 147–68.Google Scholar
Moghadam, Valentine M. (2005) Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Morrison, Andrew R.Schiff, MauriceSjöblom, Mirja, eds. (2008) The International Migration of Women. Washington, DC: Palgrave.Google Scholar
North Atlantic Population Project and Minnesota Population Center (2008) NAPP: Complete County Microdata. NAPP Version 2.0. Minneapolis: Minnesota Population Center, www.nappdata.org.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Jodi, ed. (2009) Encyclopedia of Gender and Society. Vol. 2. Seattle, WA: Sage.Google Scholar
Pear, Robert (1985) “Men only a third of U.S. immigrants, upsets conventional wisdom.” New York Times, September 9.Google Scholar
Peterson, William (1969) Population, 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ravenstein, Ernest George (1885) “The laws of migration.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 48 (2): 167–235.Google Scholar
Ravenstein, Ernest George (1889) “The laws of migration.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 52 (2): 241–305.Google Scholar
Ruggles, StevenAlexander, J. TrentGenadek, KatieGoeken, RonaldSchroeder, Matthew B.Sobek, Matthew (2010) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0 [machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: Minnesota Population Center.Google Scholar
Sarti, Raffaella (2005) “Conclusion: Domestic service and European identity,” www.uniurb.it/scipol/drs_servant_project_conclusion.pdf (accessed January 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Saville, John (1957) Rural Depopulation in England and Wales, 1851–1951. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Silvey, Rachel (2006) “Geographies of gender and migration: Spatializing social difference.” International Migration Review 40 (1): 64–81.Google Scholar
Simon, Rita JamesBrettell, Caroline B. (1986) International Migration: The Female Experience. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld.Google Scholar
Skeldon, Ronald (2008) “International migration as a tool in development policy: A passing phase?” Population and Development Review 34 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Spengler, Joseph J. (1937) “Population problems in the South—part II.” Southern Economic Journal 4 (1): 1–27.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Teresa A. (1994) “Women immigrants, work, and families.” National Forum 74 (3), findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3651/is_199407/ai_n8718567 (accessed January 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Thane, Pat (2000) Old Age in English History: Past Experiences, Present Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations (1979) Trends and Characteristics of International Migration since 1950. New York: United Nations Press.Google Scholar
United Nations (2006) State of World Population 2006. New York: United Nations Press, www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/pdf/en_sowp06.pdf (accessed January 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Wall, Richard (2001) “The residence patterns of elderly English women in comparative perspective,” in Bothelho, LynnThane, Pat (eds.) Women and Ageing in British Society since 1500. London: Longman: 139–65.Google Scholar
Westefeld, Albert (1940) “The distance factor in migration.” Social Forces 19 (2): 213–18.Google Scholar
Willcox, WalterFerenczi, Imre, eds. (1970 [1929]) International Migrations. New York: Arno.Google Scholar
Wrigley, Edward A.Schofield, Roger S. (1981) The Population History of England, 1541–1871: A Reconstruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yinger, Nancy V. (2006) “Feminization of migration.” Population Reference Bureau, www.prb.org/Articles/2006/TheFeminizationofMigration.aspx (accessed January 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Carle C. (1926) “The migration to towns and cities.” American Journal of Sociology 24 (3): 450–55.Google Scholar
Zlotnik, Hania (2003) “The global dimensions of female migration,” www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=109 (accessed January 12, 2010).Google Scholar