Women’s Union Awakening: Early Impacts on Gender Wage Gaps (Yecla, Spain, 1895-1935)

This article examines the impact of unions on gender wage gaps in Yecla (Spain) during industrialization. We construct sector-level series for wages and unionization rates by gender between 1895 and 1935, encompassing both pre- and post-union years, as well as unionized and non-unionized sectors. Using difference-in-differences with treatment intensity estimation, we find that unions had no impact on women’s wages, whereas the effect on men’s wages was positive, substantial in some years, and statistically significant. These results suggest that trade unions may have contributed to widening the gender wage gap in the early stages following their emergence.