Women and Work during the Industrial Revolution PDF

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an essay on women and work....

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Women and Work during the Industrial Revolution

I.

Breadth The era I chose is the Industrial Revolution. I chose this era because this was a

time period where women started to get out of the household and take on outside jobs.

The Industrial Revolution occurred from the 18th to the 19th century. It was a point in our history when we were able to break the pattern in the way we produced goods and services at a faster pace through innovations. It began it Great Britain and had a slow ripple effect on the rest of the world. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Before the Industrial Revolution, women were defined by their household roles, were legally inferior, economically dependent on men, and were supposed to remain just at home to care for the children. Traditionally, women had a key role in the family of raising children and taking care of the home. Before the Industrial Revolution, women helped out on the farms with the rest of the family. They did not have many job opportunities. After the Industrial Revolution, women were taken away from the family to work the same long hours and for less pay. The Industrial Revolution eventually provided women an opportunity to work for more equal rights. With the start of the Industrial Revolution, women would begin to fight for their roles in society, causing uprisings and movements which would result in political unrest and eventual change. II.

Depth The Industrial Revolution in part was fueled by the economic necessity of many women, single and married, to find waged work outside their home. The Industrial Revolution opened the door for new jobs for women. There were not enough men to occupy the low pay jobs that were created. Women faced different demands during the industrial age to those that they face today. Women of the working classes would usually be expected to go out to work, often in the mills or mines. Women mostly

found jobs in domestic service, textile factories, and piece workshops. For example, a women’s job in a coal factory would include hauling coal wagons through tunnels to the shaft, and harnessing the wagons. Most jobs were filled by the working class who wanted a better quality of life. For many women: working conditions were often unsanitary and the work was very dangerous. Education suffered because of the demands of work, home life suffered as women were faced with the double burden of factory work followed by domestic chores and child care, and men assumed supervisory roles over women and received higher wages. Women earned less than half of what men earned. As a result of the need for wages in the growing cash economy, families became dependent on the wages of women and children. The working class of women had less freedom and more restrictions because of their low profit, poor living/working conditions, and lack of education. There was no government help for those who needed it. The women also suffered profusely in hard times because of low profits. As with the children and men the hours were long and conditions were hard. Women worked 12 hours or more and were still expected to feed and clothe their families, clean, and deal with problems such as sickness in their home. Most women would work from 8am to 11pm in the winter, and 6am to 12am in the summer time. Employers during the Industrial Revolution preferred to employ women because they thought they were easier to manage than men. Factory owners became much more inclined to hire females over males because of how much money their enterprise would save. Many technically began to depend of female and child laborers in order to protect their businesses from “inevitable slumps in trade”, which clearly explains why many male workers were threatened. Women also faced the

added burden of societies demand for children. Women who filled predominantly male job positions were seen as masculine and not adept to become wives or future homemakers. Many women who worked in the mills and factories were looked down upon and accused of either being too masculine or a prostitute. Laboring women in the eighteenth century were regarded with a "tarnished image" and were often expected to be thieves, uneducated and rude. Because they performed the occupation of men and often labored with males, women were seen as more masculine and vulgar. In fact, research shows that many women in the late eighteenth century would collect chips of wood, and other materials such as cotton and wool, from shipbuildings, and were often referred to as "chip-women". Women were soon considered the tangible explanation for the increase in infant mortality and decrease in life expectancy. Factory owners and supervisors began to report many pregnant laborers who would work up to a couple days before giving birth and would return to work only a couple of days after. Physicians began to recommend the use of mid-wives in order to offer help to pregnant mothers take care of their newborns. The persistent death of young children under the age of seven was considered a product of the social ills caused by women entering the labor force. Because of the large influx of laborers from outside of urban areas, many mothers did not have reliable and accessible family with whom to leave their children while they were at work. As a result, the eighteenth century saw an increase in infant death rates. In hopes of decreasing these trends the government then made many alterations in order to establish a more sanitary drainage system in hopes it would result in a decrease in child death rates. However, the attempt failed and death rates continued to increase; many cases demonstrated that

children were often malnourished or starved. Factory owners and supervisors began to report many pregnant laborers who would work up to a couple days before giving birth and would return to work only a couple of days after. Physicians began to recommend the use of mid-wives in order to offer help to pregnant mothers take care of their newborns. Women beginning to work also challenged many of the accepted norms of sexuality and gender for women. Many clergymen and men in general, began to deem the workplace inappropriate for women and claimed it caused women to be unfit for domestic duties. Many establishments were set up in order to provide women with guidance. Women also became criticized for their inadequacy in the private sphere. Many commentators believed that factory women hindered the conditions of the family because of their lack of domestic skills. This gave many political leaders the opportunity to transfer the blame for the ills of society on the private sphere, on mothers in particular; as opposed to blaming the political public sphere. Many reformers made a correlation between prostitution and factory life and concluded that the majority of reported prostitutes began their independent lives as factory workers, and that they were a mere product of their environment. Furthermore, as a cause of women entering the workforce during the industrial revolution, many children had earned enough money by the age of thirteen to be considered independent and were given the freedom to spend their incomes as they pleased. Consequently, many young people began to develop a social life and would gather about the small towns on the weekends. This not only stimulated the economy in terms of small shops, eateries and music halls, it acquired disapproval from the clergymen who described it as mischief waiting to happen. The industrial age led to a

rapid increase in birth rates which clearly has an impact upon the physical strength of the mothers. It was not uncommon for families to have more than 10 children as a result of this demand: and the woman would often have to work right up to and straight after the day of the child’s birth for financial reasons, leaving the care of the new born child to older relatives. Women, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, had no rights to file for a divorce, keep their own wages, vote, or get the same education as men. In order to solve this issue: women began attending universities in the late 1800s to become doctors and lawyers, protesting and campaigning for fair marriage, divorce, and property laws. In the late 1800s married women won the right to control their own property. Women all over England began to band together in order to ensure the expansion of women's rights and opportunities, in the home and in the workplace, became part of the political agenda. By 1871, there were three major movements that took the nation by storm: the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, the Committee for Obtaining the Admission of Women to University Examinations, and the National Union for the Education of Girls of All Classes above the Elementary. All of these movements encouraged parents to educate their young daughters in order to protect them from the harms of "unskilled and cheap" factory occupations. The women who were part of this movement believed that as long as there was inequality in the workplace, women would forever be dependent on their patriarchal fathers and husbands. The participants of the Women's Movement attempted to teach girls more of the trades in hopes of their inclusion in the trade and manufacturing industry. They attempted to teach "glass-painting, glassengraving, illuminating, gilding, art-engraving, china-painting, plan-tracing and

wood-carving" in forms of apprenticeships, lectures and classes. Eventually, local political leaders began to take the many women who participated in the movements much more seriously and made the female cause a part of the administrative agenda. By the end of the eighteenth century many political changes had been made in order to facilitate women in the workplace. III.

Application The Industrial Revolution brought many changes upon society. During this time period there were many individuals who brought on great societal change. One of those great leaders was Susan B. Anthony. Susan B. Anthony dedicated her life to women suffrage during the Industrial Revolution. She was also an abolitionist and fought against slavery. She advocated for equal pay for work and property rights. She was the president of the National Women Suffrage Association. All of her hard works lead to the creation of the 19th amendment, the right for all genders to vote. Another powerful individual during the Industrial revolution was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton was the driving force of the 1848 Convention of Seneca. She helped draft the Declaration of Rights of Women, and traveled through the United States giving lectures and expressing her views. She is also known for being an active participant in the women’s right movement. There were many impacts of the Industrial revolution. After a period of time, women were able to hold higher positions such in society. The actions taken by women during the Industrial Revolution eventually lead to more equality for men and women. Although it was not seen for years after, women gained the right to vote.

Women were also eventually allowed to run for positions in government. As women became more independent and involved with the society they inhabited, they began to take-part in protests and campaigns in which women fought for their rights, both inside and outside of the household. The industrialization no longer posed women as inferior to men, but as their competition. However, women were not paid nearly as much as men, this only worsening the effects for men. Now that women were performing many roles which were formerly done by males, men began to struggle with keeping their positions from the female laborers. They began to band together in the shape of unions in order to protect themselves from women taking their positions for a cheaper wage. The Industrial Revolution completely transformed the role of the family. In traditional, agricultural society, families worked together as a unit of production, tending to fields, knitting sweaters, or tending to the fire. Women could parent and also play a role in producing food or goods needed for the household. Work and play time were flexible and interwoven. Industrialization changed all that. The same specialization of labor that occurred in factories occurred in the lives of workingclass families, and this broke up the family economy. Work and home life became sharply separated. Men earned money for their families. Women took care of the home and saw their economic role decline. While many factory workers were initially women, most of them were young women who would quit working when they married. The industrialization that began in the eighteenth century revolutionized many, if not all, conventions of the preceding society. Whether it was in order to help their husbands support their families or to gain independence

from their fathers, women became a large part of the manufacturing and factory industries introduced by the Industrial Revolution. Although this marked a stepping stone for the independence of women everywhere, women entering the labor force initiated a plethora of societal changes, which affected many other members of society. With the introduction of the female laborer came the introduction of the suffrage movement. Women began to band together to fight for equality rights, both in the workplace and at home, which eventually caused political alterations to many laws and regulations. Many children of the eighteenth century were left to fend for themselves when their mothers left for work, however many others were encouraged to begin working with their mother at a very young age, thus increasing child labor. Men were now in competition with women for their jobs, and therefore began to form unions in order to protect their employment from the influx of female laborers. In essence, though the women of the eighteenth century were able to enjoy a newly found sliver of independence, their inclusion in the factories and mines introduced by the industrial revolution challenged many traditional norms and caused intensive structural changes to society. To say that women changed the way in which society's labor force conducted itself would be an understatement. However, to say that women revolutionized the very workforce industry and societal structure that is evident in present day society would be concluding fact that speaks to the perseverance of women during the 1800s.

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