A new longitudinal dataset of Canadian women, 1871-1901: preliminary findings

Luiza Antonie, University of Guelph
Kris Inwood, University of Guelph
Chris Minns, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Fraser Summerfield, St. Francis Xavier University and RCEA
Tianning Zhu, London School of Economics

Longitudinal databases constructed by linking individual records allow researchers to track children from their parents’ household into adulthood. These studies typically limit their focus to men because tracking women over time is impeded by the cultural practice of women changing their names at marriage. The principal way to circumvent this problem is to begin with marriage records which identify the bride and her family. Marriage registration was compulsory and near universal in Ontario beginning in 1869. The universe of registrations 1830-1938 allow us to characterize broadly the changing patterns of marriage. We then focus on women born 1856-1871 who married in Ontario between 1871 and 1901 (494,436 marriage records). We seek to identify these women in the 1871 census (unmarried) and with a husband in the 1901 census. A probabilistic identification of marriage-census matches identifies 1871 census records for roughly one-half of the brides in 1871 and a similar proportion of grooms. More than two-thirds of the couples fully census-linked in 1871 can be identified in 1901. Census characteristics of the linked married women permit comparison to the broader population and analysis of longitudinal outcomes including intergenerational mobility (assessed by comparing the occupations and income of fathers and spouses). We compare the longitudinal experience of women to that of men analyzed in previous work (JEH 2922).

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 60. Economic Mobility