Wage Earning Women Chapter Summary

970 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Family life into the industrial revolution

Wage Earning Women: Industrial Work and Family Life in the United States, 1900-1930, was written by Leslie Woodcock Tentler in 1982. In this book she researches the employment of women, specifically non-black women in factory jobs, from the years 1900 to 1930. More importantly, her research focused on the wages women received, the work environment, and its community. Tentler’s argument is that the employment of women during this time was an important part of women’s socialization. Everything about the jobs women had, from their wages to their environment, reinforced gender roles and a woman’s dependency on men (Tentler 9). Because of this, despite what some may believe, employment was not necessarily a huge freedom or a separation from their normal roles in the community for women. Tentler organized this book into three parts: Women’s Wages, “Women’s Work” and Work Environments, and The Work Community. The first part, Women’s Wages, brilliantly discusses how the wages of working women during this time period literally forced dependency on …show more content…

Tentler found that “75% of female factory workers” were under 25 years old and most of them were between sixteen and nineteen (59). Work life caused many young women to want more social and sexual freedom due to the employment of men being mostly middle aged. Because of this, more and more of these girls wanted an early marriage right out of school in order to be free from their parents. Overall, Tentler was great at making her writing very easy to understand. It was clear and very well organized, I had very few problems with trying to understand her argument and her supporting details. Some parts that were a bit confusing are the direct quotes that she included but she still was good at explaining the quotes and connecting them to her

Show More
Related

  • Housework Wages, And The Ideology Of Women In Anteellum America

    993 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thesis: Boydston argues that women in Antebellum America, along with the society surrounding them, believed that there was little to no economic value to the work they did in the home (xii). Boydston in her text seeks understand the "the intimate relationship between the gender and labor systems that characterized industrializing America (xii).

    Read More

  • Negotiating Fine Lines between Women’s Work and Women’s Worth

    2507 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...ues women’s work becomes wrong. Yes, in today’s society one could argue further that a woman who stays at home and does not work is only reinforcing the stereotype and prolonging the inequality. However, this essay was not written to change the world. It simply strove to identify and prove the reasons behind a ruined sense of self worth that many women in the early 1900’s felt as a result of their work being demeaned. By reaching out to people’s emotional sides, McBride relayed her grandmother’s tale so that people could clearly feel the hurt and demotion that women of that time lived with in order to have them persuaded that the oppression of women in any manner and capacity is wrong.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Industrial Revolution

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender in society has changed. In our present generation, women are displeased with the fact that society does not want them to do men’s work or labor, but during the 1800s, women would do anything to be relieved of the hard labor they endured. Labor is a productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain. This definition alone describes the drive of plantation owners in Antebellum Georgia, economic gains. As readers there must be an understanding that labor is divided into skilled and unskilled labor. These two distinct types of labor determined who worked, how hard they worked, and what workers received in return. Plantation owners wanted not only the best slaves, but slaves that could make them a better profit. Here is where Gender comes into play. In Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe, Diana Berry suggests that gender disappears, which is true, but is only true during unskilled labor. During unskilled labor tasks men and women worked together day in and day out to maintain cotton and rice plantations, of which Georgia held the title as the leading producer. The women being more efficient and most commended for their labor in the fields , put in

    Read More

  • Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Workers

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jobs were desired because everyone wanted to achieve the American Dream. The rise of garment factories pulled in a lot of women employees. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory located on the 8th and 9th floor of a building overlooking Washington Square was a popular company run by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. Age wasn’t a concern since girls at the young age of ten starting working in the same fields as older women to support their families. Some mothers worked alongside with their daughters to earn money. Women worked six days a week for fourteen hours to make roughly $2 at most. Their pay would be docked if there were any mistakes during their shift even if the cause of it was due to a broken machine. Women became the

    Read More

  • Blue Collar Workers

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Gender Socialization and Women in Politics

    1881 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before the Equal Pay Act, men and women were confined to vocational roles based on gendered norms. Women often stayed at home with the c...

    Read More

  • Women's Wage Gap Analysis

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women and men for the most part have reached complete equality, but it hasn’t always been this way. In the past women weren’t treated as full citizens, by not having complete rights, limited amount of jobs, and hardly a say in anything. Today women have the same opportunities as men such as in, education, jobs, and full voting rights. Although all these rights have only been intact until just recently, women have only had a say in choosing a president for just a little under a century. In the past, women were expected to stay home and take care of the family while the men were at work. This was the expectation for women for centuries. However, that is no longer the case. Even with a large percentage of women at work, a wage a gap is prevalent. Although the wage gap has nothing to do with being sexist its just that women have a more passionate side to them, which makes them better teachers nurses, and

    Read More

  • Prostitution In Medieval Europe

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    This type of profession for women was low-skilled and low-paid, which perpetuated the notions of gender inequality in the workforce. Many single women, especially those who migrated to urban centers, were at a disadvantage in terms of employment. As apprentices, many women left their homes and became part of their Master’s homes. This did not indicate that women or men for that

    Read More

  • Women's Wages

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    “April third has been declared by Feminist and labor groups as ‘Equal Pay Day’ because it supposedly takes 93 calendar days for women’s wages to catch up to men’s.” 3 Many people believe that sex discrimination is the main reason for the pay gap. However, several factors must be taken into consideration.

    Read More

  • Women's Wage Gap Analysis

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    "When I started teaching elementary school after college, the public school district didn't hide the fact that it had two pay scales: one for men and one for women. Women have made incredible strides since then. But 40 years later, we're still debating equal pay for equal work." —Elizabeth Warren

    Read More

  • Discrimination In African American Women

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to “The National Organization for Women’s 1966 Statement of Purpose” by Betty Friedan, women were still tied with societal maternal stereotype as “child-rearing”, which was the “most important part of most women’s life .” Society still used this traditional assumption to justify women from “equal professional and economic participation4.” Women were limited access to career and working compensation compared to men3. The huge gender disparities in pay had been influenced by the idea of “feminist” assumption. Majority of women were still restricted in some particular low paid occupations. Especially African American women were at the “bottom of the job ladder4.” Women also earned less than men did, and the gap in paying between men

    Read More

  • Women's Wage Research Paper

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    Based on the information provided, it can be inferred that there is a relationship between women's wages and the amount of women at the poverty level. The fact that women are paid less clearly contributes to their struggle to put food on the table. Simply put, less money means less food. This is a gender problem. What makes women's pay a gender problem is that it directly affects women negatively. Referring to the definition of gender, the circumstances in which women live was and is created by society (Anderson & Witham, 2011, p. 2 ). Being a woman and a United States citizen, it is part of the experience to be paid less. Women's wages is a gender-based decision made by our society that is creating financial difficulties for one gender.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequalities, Past and Present

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before we look at the gender inequalities in paid employment, it is vital to look at unpaid labour and the discriminations that women face. History has shown us that the roles and respon...

    Read More

  • Inequality Of Pay For Women Essay

    503 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women in todays society are only as good as their looks and wit. Women are treated as objects of affection. Most of advertising are objectifying the image of womens bodies. Women are given this standard to not to strive to be too successful or it would be considered masculine and unattractive. If women were to achieve the success of men it would be displayed as threatening to other small minds.

    Read More

More about Wage Earning Women Chapter Summary

Open Document