This chapter presents the methodology behind the study and describes the source base in detail. It justifies the verb-oriented method with reference to its capacity to capture all forms of work and to do so across large swathes of time. The method also accords with how the United Nations and ILO define and measure work. The chapter acknowledges some drawbacks of the method but concludes that its benefits dominate. The sources for the extraction of verb phrases describing work activities—nearly 19,000 observations—consist of court records (62%), accounts, ego-documents, registers, and petitions. Additional sources are church records and probate inventories. The chapter points to some biases: married men are overrepresented in the data, women’s share of the observed activities decline over time, and some forms of work are underrepresented (agriculture, textile work, and domestic work). It concludes that by mapping people’s activity patterns, it is possible to identify both repertoires of practices, that is, what men and women typically did in this society, and the gender division of work within a given field.

This chapter explores everyday mobility and its relationship to the gender division of work in the period 1720 to 1880. Building on verb data and adding information about location, the chapter discusses the underlying and changing infrastructure of such mobility, as well as three main factors behind the mobility of early modern and nineteenth-century societies: the character of agriculture (open fields), the need for extra labour, and the distribution of goods. The chapter refutes the standard narrative of gender, work, and space in the nineteenth century as summarized in the phrase ‘separation of home and workplace’. It shows instead that the working lives of both women and men were characterized by many forms of mobility, by new ‘mobility sites’, and by mobility creating contact and causing conflict in everyday life (reflected in court records). The evidence suggests continuity in the geographical range of women’s activity patterns and a larger, more varied, and expanding radius for men. It also suggests that class was a factor affecting people’s work-related mobility.

This chapter introduces the mid-Swedish local society in focus: the city of Västerås, west of Stockholm on Lake Mälaren, and the neighbouring rural districts of Snevringe and Tuhundra, all in the county of Västmanland. It identifies some of the major processes characterizing the 160 years covered in the book: population growth and proletarianization, enclosures, liberalization of the economy, improved infrastructure, and transition from an estate-based to a diversified class society. It identifies Västerås as a hub for trade and distribution of raw materials, especially iron and grain between Bergslagen and Stockholm. It describes the organization of hamlets, villages, and towns, and provides population data. In Västmanland, as in the country as a whole, the population comprised more women than men throughout the study period. In 1760, there were 82 men to 100 women; in 1880, the gap was reduced to 91 men to 100 women.

In 1963, it was announced that Upsala Kappfabrik, one of Sweden’s largest coat factories, had entered into a licensing agreement with the French fashion house Pierre Cardin. On one side of the agreement, the Parisian fashion houses, challenged by other fashion capitals and the growing clothing industry, moved toward a new business model. On the other hand, the Swedish clothing industry struggled with changes in demand and increased imports of clothing. The relationship between Upsala Kappfabrik and Pierre Cardin is analyzed through the lens of fashion democratization. The article offers insights into the periphery of the Parisian fashion system and the motivations for collaboration with a French fashion house. By launching a collection under the Pierre Cardin brand, Upsala Kappfabrik increased its symbolic fashion value and reinforced its core values of high quality in materials, manufacturing, and design. Equally important was that the brand could be associated with being fashionable. The collaboration, which can be seen as an act of resistance to changing consumption patterns, did not save Upsala Kappfabrik, whose products were too exclusive to be part of the democratization of fashion. Upsala Kappfabrik, whose fate was shared by many other Swedish clothing manufacturers, closed down in 1970.