With the advancement of Industry Lowell started to operate textile plants. From the early 1800’s to the 1850’s the number of plants doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. This boom in industry caused Lowell to come up with new ways to produce items. These plants produced many different items. However, it was not the items that were produced that were unique, it was how they were produced that was. In Lowell the use of female labor was much higher here than in most of the rest of the country. By 1836, out of the 6,000 employees in the town, 5,000 were women. (The Northern Nation- The two Nations, 2011). Women were paid less then men, however they had more chances to learn and get an education than anywhere else in the entire United States. Lowell also was producing textiles at a higher rate than anywhere. In fact they produced more than the entire south combined. This was what made the town so unique. Not only were they producing textiles at such an extreme rate, they were using women to do it. This set the mold so to speak for a form the rest of the country could follow in the wake of their success.…
Women getting the short end of the stick has been a prominent trend for ages. It is no different in the 1800s. Women in the 1800s did not have a large variety of fields to work in, thus many worked in mills where their wages were generally half of that of a male’s. Lowell mill was an attempt to make an industrial work place, without the…
1. As evidenced by the formation of the Lowell Female Reform Association in 1844, female workers in New England…
As The United States moved into the 20th century, society had to confront the effects of industrialization, the growth of economic power, americanization, and a great wave of immigration. The Progressive movement came to be because of the desire to change aspects of industrialization, and to make the government more responsive to people and their opinions. The atmosphere of reform gave rise to a new women’s movement. There were new opportunities for women while there was a growth in big business such as working in a factory, or being a saleswoman. However, women often found their efforts being dominated by men. As women tried to address these social problems, they had to cope with the view that women were inferior to men. The way that…
In a letter from a Lowell mill girl in 1844, she describes her work schedule, which occasionally ranged to 13 hours in the factory per day. Although provided breaks, she states the girls’ annoyed beliefs saying that “laboring girls can say, who think nothing is more tedious than a factory life.” (Document B) An opportunity for women in the workplace was still extremely rare, but becoming more known. Still under the impression of becoming a ideal bride, women worked before marriage and then became housewives/mothers. In the family, women were also becoming in charge of a new trend, a child centered environment. This differed from in the past where childhood was short and tough. During the Age of Reform, middle class women played a big part in the reform crusades, finding it as a way to get out of the house and enter public affairs. Not only was the reform about evangelists and the market revolution, but criminal codes and laws were lightened, mocking the European practices. A problem that was brought to Dorothea Dix (the superintendent of women nurses, and an opinionated reformer) that those diagnosed of mental illnesses was being treated with superior cruelty. Carrying this awareness with her and trying to put a stop to it, she…
In “the lady and the mill girl’ they talk about the period 1800-1840 was decisive changes occurred in American women. They talk about economic, political, and social status of women. Vast majority of women worked within their homes, where their labor produced most articles needed for the family. Work for women, married or single, it was regarded as a civic duty. Under British common law, marriage destroyed a woman’s contractual capacity; she couldn't sign a contract even under husband’s consent.…
These men now had to work alongside the women who began doing these jobs during the war and at first their attitudes towards these women created problems in the work place. The men responded with harassment and discrimination toward the women. Sexual harassment directed toward women from men was commonplace. And even though women outnumbered the men in the labor force three to one they still had problems with the new idea of women as wage laborers. Male employees and male-controlled unions were suspicious of women. Companies saw women’s needs and desires on the job as secondary to men’s, so they were not taken seriously. Also, employers denied women positions of power excluding them from any kind of decision-making process of the company. Women wanted to be treated like the male workers and not given special consideration just because they were women. As time went on and more and more women entered the workforce, the attitudes towards women workers changed. Employers actually began to praise them. It was then that employers were more willing to let women do the work previously done by…
In the 18th to 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, gender equality rights were harsh making it difficult to work in the textile mills. Factories required Women and young children to take on the roles as mill workers to help the families to survive. While men were out in the fields working, women worked harder in the factories making much less than the men. Women worked longer days, starting from before sunrise to past sundown then most men. In addition, women worked in factories with dangerous machines, rats, and overall filthy working conditions. As a result, the female mill workers in America and England shared experiences of inequality due to the amount of money they made, the horrible conditions they had to work in, and their family life.…
Sparked by first the growth of the planters which then led to manufacturing and factories, all this new growth lead to strains and changes in relationships in both the work place and in the home as women strived to become more independent. In the early days, factory girls were not popular,…
To begin with, the lives of women workers were not as bad as African American lives during the slavery period, but they still endured severe conditions. In The Triangle Fire (Argersinger, 2009), the author mentions how the head executive of the company would circle around the workspace speaking to the women with no respect. After every workday ended, the younger girls and women went through strict security procedures to make sure nothing would come up missing the next day (Argersinger, 2009). After working in the factory day in and day out, the women slowly started to hate the work…
As the industrial growth started in the 1800s many factory owners began to hire women. Majority of the women who worked in the factories were poor, young, unmarried or widows, women of the middle-class were privileged to stay at home to provide their domestic duties. Women were paid lower then men due to women were subordinate to them., it did not matter what kind of quality the women produced. Any income women received legally belonged to their husbands and with that status employers were able to keep women’s wages low. Eventually women created labor associations because they wanted to sort issues out such as the terrible working conditions, low pay, and longer hours. The Female Labor Reform met once a week to discuss conditions that needed to be improved. Even though they were doubted by many that they would not make any difference and would not be listened to, they never gave up.…
In the 1800’s women’s work exhausting, difficult the society was unappreciative. Women who couldn’t afford slaves to help were put permanently on household duties. Women would cook, clean, make clothing, take care of domestic animals, hunt, fish, and protect their family. There was a lot of work to be done as a colonial woman, especially since most had more than 8 kids to take care of. The wife of a family was an essential component. Without a strong and productive wife a family would struggle just to survive. Yet even though women had worked extremely hard day in and day out to ensure care of their family they were not allowed to speak among men, could not vote, and could not take part in government decisions.…
According to the textbook in the Colonial period women lived within restrictive boundaries. They were expected to remain in the home and complete the “household” duties. the superior individual viewed by society was the husband and I still see much of that in today’s society. The expectation of working women is that taking care of the children, husbands, and maintaining their houses is the priority. All while being held at the same if not higher merits as men within their place of employment.…
Before the Women’s Suffrage movement began, women faced hardships that would later motivate them to take a stand for women’s rights. Women were, at that time, being abused and mistreated by men and society, in order to gain what was necessary to survive during this time in American history. The industrial revolution had just swept the nation by surprise. The industrial revolution changed the process of production from hand tools and man labor, to power driven machinery. (Dublin). This change from hand labor to power machinery affected the women greatly. The women continued to do the same jobs as before the industrial era, but now all work was done on machines to increase both output and production rates on products. This new way of manufacturing…
It is no secret that for centuries, women have faced years and years of discrimination, inferiority to men, and being viewed as less than human by society. Women have had to fight for their right to vote amongst other legal rights, and for their independence from their husbands. “When American women began to enter the labor force in the nineteenth century, the relatively few jobs open to them were highly segregated by gender” (Spain 1992: 14). The first women’s labor union began to form by the end of the 1930’s. Women’s activism began to increase, leading to a new reform in paid work and the rise in feminism in the midst of a new labor movement (Gregory 2003: 25). By the 1940’s, the transition of the housewife to that of a working woman began to trend. Women began to venture out of the home in search of employment and educational opportunities to help provide for their families, since their…