‘THEY DO THE MANLIEST JOBS’. CHALLENGING THE MYTH OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FAMILY: WOMEN, WORK AND FAMILY IN THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS (SICILY, ITALY) IN THE 19TH CENTURY

The household economy of the islands in the Aeolian archipelago was based on women’s full participation in work outside the home, including ‘male’ and physically demanding jobs such as fishing and working in the pumice quarries. Furthermore, the inheritance of property was fairly egalitarian between men and women, and the structure of household units was predominantly nuclear. As well as challenging the ‘myth’ of the Mediterranean family, this reality prompts us to consider two issues, one thematic and the other methodological. The first concerns comparison with other island and maritime communities; the second concerns the use of less conventional sources (iconography, travelogues and scientific reports, literature) to identify women’s informal work outside the home, which otherwise risks remaining largely invisible both during the pre-statistical era and following the modernisation of survey techniques.