The aim of this article is to investigate the situation of the rural servants in Norway from the preindustrial period, the rural Norway, to industrialisation in the middle of XIX century. I will summarise the research that has been carried out in Norway. In particular I will describe the evolution of the servant’s role and tasks, underlining the transformations and passages from an agrarian society to an industrial one and the importance of the service activities from a demographic prospective. Furthermore I will describe the gender roles, the sex-ratio, the differences between male and female servants and the differences in the treatment they received. I will contextualise the case of Norway and see if there were similitudes or differences in... |