A person who does physical work, especially unskilled or manual work for wages.
From Latin 'labor' (work, toil) via Old French 'laborer.' The '-er' suffix denotes a person who performs the action, established in English by the 1200s.
The word 'labourer' was often used in history with a sense of class distinction—it separated those who worked with their hands from those with 'respectable' jobs, revealing social attitudes of the time.
Historically defaulted to male; women's labor was often unpaid, unrecorded, or classified differently (e.g., 'seamstress' vs. 'tailor'). Language invisibility reinforced economic erasure.
Use 'labourer' or 'worker' without gender markers. Recognize women labourers explicitly when discussing historical contexts.
["worker","labour force participant"]
Women labourers fought for workplace recognition, equal wages, and safety standards—their strikes and organizing built modern labor protections.
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