Economic Assimilation of Women and Families in the Age of Mass Migration

During the Age of Mass Migration, over forty percent of immigrants were women, yet most research focuses on men. Using linked 1900 and 1910 Census records, I show that economic assimilation patterns differed for men and women, and families assimilated at different rates than individuals. Immigrant families improved their relative income scores compared with US-born families, driven by reliance on multiple earners, particularly women’s and children’s labor. At the individual level, gaps between immigrant and US-born income scores were larger for women than men, and the gap for women barely changed even after twenty years of stay.