Gender and Racial Differences in Migration Behavior: Evidence from the Farm Exodus Within and out of the US South, 1900-1940

Using linked Census Tree records and archival sources, I explore the roles of race and gender in migrant selection and sorting during the exodus of single young women and men from U.S. Southern farms from 1900-1940. Female migration rates, influenced by changes in farm men's marriageability, rose during the farm crisis of 1920-1940 and exceeded men's by 1940. On- and off-farm discrimination by race and gender drove differences in migrant characteristics: out-of-South Black female migrants, but not within-South, were positively selected on education and family resources, while White women were positively selected across both destinations.