La tasa de actividad femenina en el siglo xviii en dos municipios andaluces: Laujar de Andarax (Almería) y Úbeda (Jaén)

This article analyses the female labour participation rates of Laujar de Andarax (Almería) and Úbeda (Jaén), both in Andalusia, in the mid-eighteenth century, representative locations of manufacturing activity linked to wool textile in the South of Spain. A database was composed including 12,195 inhabitants using the records of the Ensenada Cadastre of 1751-1752. The impact of the demand factors was established: A local economy with a relatively stronger presence of the secondary and tertiary sector, especially the textile sector; and the supply factors: life cycles, marital status, number of children, occupation and age of husbands. This study concludes that the female activity rates were 54.2% in Laujar, and 27.4% in Úbeda, and the 2 most important occupations were in the textile industry and domestic service. The local perspective shows that demand factors had a strong influence.