Livelihood or Career? Occupational Practices in Needlework in Eighteenth-Century Stockholm

This article examines working conditions in small-scale needlework production in eighteenth-century Stockholm, when many women turned to the needle trades to support themselves. Generally operating without formal recognition, their work was undocumented and thus difficult to trace. Employing a microhistorical approach, this article examines how personal circumstances as well as formal regulations shaped the work of individual practitioners. It highlights the working lives of two women who gained formal recognition by being granted manufacturing licences for needlework. While the benefits of institutional inclusion are hard to evaluate, the work was long-term and enabled one of the women to make strategic choices and thereby build a career to maintain independence.