Based on a 1894 government survey of 2,925 Pennsylvanian working
women, this article analyzes the differences between daughters who remained at
home and thus contributed to their family wage economy and those who boarded
away. Choice of board location is explained in terms of wages, hours, location, and
national origin. Data on boarding costs and wages are used to make inferences about
the patterns of bargaining between parents and daughters within the family economy
and their relationship to boarding costs in the market. This article suggests that the
boarding behavior of working women was a complex balance of responsiveness to
familial values and calculation of individual economic objectives.
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