Blue Collar vs. White Collar Workers During the Progressive Era, a rift between middle class workers formed when the federal government created a new classification system that differentiated between middle class workers who are paid hourly and middle class workers who had a fixed salary (Diner, p.155). The former group became white collar workers and the later developed into blue collar workers. Both these groups worked hard to get what they wanted and many individuals in these groups were able to succeed in reaching their goal of controlling their lives. When forces, such as gender, education, and big business, impacted their work experience, middle class workers rose above these issues and made a living for themselves. While attempting …show more content…
These workers mostly worked in an outdoor environment, and they were paid hourly or by piecework wage. Industrial workers were usually the image that comes to mind when discussing a blue collar job. Other professions that fall under this title were: “skilled craft workers, industrial operatives, and unskilled laborers” (Diner, p.51). Big business played a major power force for many if not all blue collar workers who worked for a corporation. New technology was brought in by many big businesses. These machines could do the same job that many workers did except that the machine did not have to be paid. Many businesses began to undermine the skilled craft workers and they quickly lost their autonomy and their pay declined (Diner, p.54). The great expansion of America’s industrial economy, however, caused these businesses to rely upon the workers once again because the massive increase in need caused the machines to occasionally break. These workers then needed to use their skills once again, and they soon had power and control over their lives. The machines even created a new industry to make parts for itself when it broke, which happened often (Diner, p.53). The factor of big business realized that it still needed its workers and soon gave some power over to them so they could maintain their lives and …show more content…
Married women from a blue collar family would make clothing, artificial flowers, and other goods in their homes. These activities soon began to be known as homework (Diner, p.69). In this line of work, mothers were able to keep an eye on their children as they worked together to make goods to sell. While working, they were able to have other mothers over and socialize with them while both mothers earned an income by working. More commonly, married women in working-class families earned extra money by taking in “boarders from their own nationality” (Dinner, p.70).The boarders helped the family economically and enabled mothers to watch over their children at home. The force of women working in blue collar middle class families did not play a major factor in the role of men because working class people depended upon their family for economic security. This was a common aspect of blue collar families in which the wife had to do an extra job for money, and in even some cases the children had to work too for economic
Baillargeon also mentions the work that women did in order to earn money to help care for their families. The women she interviewed did many of the same things mentioned by Hollingsworth and Tyyska at home, only a few were employed outside the home. In several cases the husbands of the women did additional work on top of their regular jobs.
When families immigrated to the United States, men were primarily the ones who were expected to learn and bring in wages to support the family. While women did bring in wages as well, they were expected to care for the home and take care of the children. Because of this, women lacked the chance to go to school and become educated because it was boys who were mainly sent to school. Women were only expected to work and earn money to help support the family. In the novel Bread Givers, a book about an immigrant family in New York, one of the daughters named Sara explains her sister’s role by saying, “Bessie would rush home the quicker to help Mother with the washing or ironing, or bring home another bundle of night work, and stay up till all hours to earn another dollar for the house.” In this novel, Bessie’s duties are to help around the house and work all she can to earn money to support her family. She does not have the privilege to go to school and attempt to prepare for a bet...
Despite the phenomenal economic growth many American laborers lived at or below the poverty level. While some advances were made like welfare capitalism, which raised wages, shortened the work week, and instituted paid vacations. Modest company made labor unions emerged in many industries, these unions gave some help to solving labor grievances. But in the end welfare capitalism was only adopted by a few employers and workers still had no control over their fates. Most employers tried to keep their labor costs low and with a nearly endless supply of unskilled workers there were an endless supply of people to fill jobs.
The social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century drastically changed the United States. The business world changed once industrialization was introduced to the world. Opportunities grew as people heard about the boundless American opportunities. Immigrants from all races flooded the cities which doubled in population from 1860-1900 (Barnes and Bowles, 2014, p. 34). However, as industries grew, owners prospered off the hard work of others. People started to feel they were not being treated fairly. People had to work harder and longer for their money. Barnes and Bowles (2014) noted “In the era of industrialization, millions of workers fought to simply have the right to work in safe conditions, and earn a fair wage” (p. 45). Many Americans feared that giant corporations would one day seek to restrict the ability of common people to get ahead and curtail individual freedoms. These fears were particularly strong among farmers, laborers, an...
Since factories started to incorporate machines through industrialization, the required long hours were not needed anymore. The working class wanted to have more freedom away from their jobs. “They also desired more free time to rest, eat their dinners, enjoy conversations and drink beer” (Green 162). Since the rest of America was enjoying freedom, the working class wanted to have a part in it as well. The idea of not being dependent on their wages, was extremely important to the working class at this time. Also with factories mainly supplying unskilled work, skilled workers started to feel degraded in their proud craft. “By the same token, proud American and European craftsmen viewed other forms of unskilled or menial labor as degrading” (Green 107). Although factories allowed their skilled workers to keep their jobs, they expected them to take a pay cut. Also with the pay cut, the skilled workers were forced to give up the skilled work that they took pride in. With workers becoming frustrated with not having freedom and, skilled workers not being treated fairly unions were
During this time, women had limited options as far as work was concerned. As time went on, more and more women were forced to work, because they had no husband and no other means of building up a dowry for a husband. By 1910 the wage labor force was made up of about 20% of women as young as fourteen. The wages these women earned were unbelievably low, and at times as much as 80% lower than the wages men earned. Possible job opportunities for the women included options such as a textile factory, which consisted of clothing and fabric production. In these factories, the women ran high risks to their health. More wealthy people would hire these women for domestic services such as nannies, or house servants. These jobs sometimes required the woman to live at that residence, and the women ran the constant risk of being molested by a higher-class ranking individual. Department stores were also willing to hire women. However, the set-back to this type of work was that the women were sometimes expected to purchase expensive dress up clothing that most of the time they couldn’t afford. The women were advised to “round out their meager salaries by finding a ‘”gentleman friend”’ to purchase clothing and pleasures”(Peiss, 79).
We, as a society, feel the need to draw imaginary lines to separate ourselves whether it’s the line between color of our skin, our religion differences, our political beliefs, or the status of our class. As much as I wish there wasn’t a defining line between high class and the educated vs. low class and uneducated, there is. In Mike Rose’s narrative essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” he describes his mother’s lack of education and her hard labor work which is the quote on quote the blue collar working class.
However, social conditions made it less feasible for families to live this way. As the 1960s approached and consumption was in high demand, women were yet again, forced to join the work force; but only a quarter of the women joined the workforce, whereas in the 1990s about “two-thirds of women who had children were in the work force (Coontz 55). Coontz (1997) explains how by 1973, “real wages were falling for young families, and by the late 1970s, government effectiveness had decreased (Coontz 54). It was because of economic factors that the nuclear bread-winning family could only be a lifestyle a few can afford. Nonetheless, women joining the workforce created a new understanding of women-hood, changed women’s status in society, and created conflict within the household. Women did not have the time to complete all the household tasks which contributed to the increased divorce rates, but left women happier due to the fact that they had that ultimate
For years, the middle class was the American Dream. It was the place where many American families lived comfortably, saved modestly, and on special occasions had the ability to splurge. However, in recent years the middle class has struggled. As the cost of living is on the rise, the standard wages are not moving at the same rate thus making it more challenging for the middle class to maintain their position let alone move up, causing the middle class to shrink.
As mentioned before, sociologists Coontz and Hochschild further elaborate upon Parsons and Bales’ concepts of the American family, but they mostly critique the idea of the male-breadwinner family. One of the main arguments Coontz and Hochschild present is the decline of the male-breadwinner family due to the economic changes of the United States and the arising social norms of consumerism. Because Parsons and Bales never considered how the changes throughout society would affect family, they believed the male-breadwinner family would continue to be a functional type of family for everyone. However, within her text, “What We Really Miss about the 1950s,” Coontz specifically discusses the major expense of keeping mothers at home as consumption norms...
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
the middle class was growing in size and influence, and the working poor were leaving their
The bourgeoisie, also known as the middle class, gained money and power as the industrial capitalism got stronger. They consisted of merchants, tradesmen, and professionals. In the middle class, the men worked outside the home to support their families, while the women stayed at home to take care of the house and children. Unfortunately, the lower class was unable to do the same. All the members of the family had to work to support each other. Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury ( 2008) state in the textbook “The West In The World”, that the people of the working class had to work six days a week, twelve to sixteen hours a day, earning only a small amount of money ( p.277).
These divisions of labor cannot be discussed as static representations of society, but as a “murky boundary between work for subsistence and work for the market.” During the twelfth through the seventeenth centuries in Europe, both men and women participated in the market by selling goods, earning wages, and running business establishments, amongst other activities. Kimmel argued that child bearing was considered one of the main categories of sexual difference, which restricted women’s access to certain professions. Moreover, women were tasked with “brewing, baking, caring for poultry and animals [,]…working wool and flax into cloth, and also watching children, cleaning house, and preparing meals” as part imposed by societies expectation of gender. As Judith M. Bennett argued, whereas occupations of women changed through time, their work continued to be low-skilled and low-paid. Men’s jobs was the primary household economy and were publicly recognized by their profession, which was not the same case for women. The sexual division of labor also reflected the sexual inequality between the sexes, where the distribution of labor and resources was
As I look back on everything I learned from pre-k through college, there are a lot of key points I can reflect on from learning different sociological perspectives in college. This leads to the perspective [separate spheres], which according to Skolnick (2011) is “the distinction and expectations of men and women roles” (Skolnick, 2011 p84). When I was younger I never looked at my parent’s occupations and placed them in the [separate spheres] perspective, until I entered college. After taking a couple of sociology courses, I connected my parents to the expectation of the perspective [separate spheres]. My mom always worked and came home to cook dinner, clean, and prepare clothing for the following day. While my dad on the other hand always worked two jobs, and rarely came home to help my mom contribute to any of the house norms she did every day after work. This made me realize that this perspective not only took place in 1840-1890, but it still consists in society norms