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Distinctions of gender and age were reinforced in the period of early industrial capitalism in Montreal as more and more children were drawn into wage labour. Working-class males sought work for wages for most of their lives. For women such work was transitory, undertaken as girls, seldom as wives, but required if their husband died or deserted them. Domestic labour was the usual task of both girls and women within the family economy. Gender-based wage differentials made it practical for families to send sons rather than daughters into the workforce, hardening the identification of the home as women's place. The female's economic dependence on a male and his wages was highlighted in the plight of the widow.