So, most girls leaving school at that age, and who were looking for work, were not well educated, and went straight into menial jobs such as Domestic Service as there was not much other choice for them. Domestic servants worked for the rich and middle classes as servants, often in bad conditions and it was almost impossible for them to do anything about them. They worked very long hours as cleaners or chambermaids and lived in the attics of the houses they worked in. The pay was often very low, i.e. £5 to £10 a year.
Women were considered physically and emotionally weak but artistic, moral, and refined. This is basically stated in Document A where a woman converts another woman to show how good and moral women are. As time went on many women did not get married so they could have some type of freedom. During this time period, women were allowed to work but they worked for lower wages even though they worked just as long and hard as men. Women most commonly worked as teachers, domestic workers, or mill workers.
During the Industrial Revolution women soon began working in factories and were given an extremely low salary for tedious work. Even though it was a small amount, having the ability to earn salary gave women more independence. Women were delighted to fulfill these positions for the reason of getting the opportunity to escape the house. Having money gave women more of an opportunity to have an influence and make something out of themselves more than just a housewife. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, prior to the Industrial Revolution, women were restrained and could not speak out for themselves.
Maid of All Work's Life Maid of all work’s life was very different to the life of a middle class women. They were responsible for looking after the home and family and were paid to work. They were usually younger, had no husband, were widowed, unmarried or their husbands has left them, forcing them to work. Some also choose to work because their husbands’ wages were too low to support their family. Much of their work was poorly paid!
People often believed that women did not have the ability to do the same quality as men. This theory led women to be paid less than men in most jobs. “China more fully supported women’s equality in practice, but some job discrimination against women persisted”(Women’s Rights). Business owners and factory owners did not want women to work at first because they believed that they were only good for house keeping and taking care of children. “The number of working women increased substantially after the two world wars, but they generally had low-paying work”(Women’s Rights).
Women's Employment in Britain Before the War The number of job opportunities for women was low because they weren't expected to work and there were only a few jobs thought suitable for a woman to do. A woman working was often seen as stealing the job and wages from a man who might have a family to support. Working-class women could take menial jobs such as servants and cooks, in middle-class family homes or in hotels cooking and cleaning. This was seen as good work experience for becoming a housewife and training in how to look after their own homes. Women were seen as dextrous, they had nimble fingers and were good at working with small, fragile things and they were employed as dressmakers, milliners, shawl makers, bookbinders, lace makers, matchbox makers, artificial flower makers and tobacco workers.
The Supreme Court banned laws that set a minimum wage for women workers. Men were still the managers and had the jobs with the best prospects, there were however new jobs for women but they tended to be so called women's jobs such as librarian's teachers and nurses. Most women workers still had low paying jobs. In the new radio Industry women were the preferred employees because of their small nimble hands but one of the main reasons why employees were willing to employ women was that they could ... ... middle of paper ... ...that only a small percentage of women's lives changed. These were usually the upper or middle class because they were the only ones who could afford the new mod cons e.g.
In 1914 there were 5.9million women working out of 23.7million. In domestic service, there were 1.5million women working, 900,00 were working in textiles and 500,000 in the sweated trade. Middle class women sometimes worked as lawyers, teachers, teachers or doctors. But this was a very small number and very few middle class married women would be working at all. Upper class women rarely worked either.
In the late 1700’s, many women and children were hired for factory work because of their small, nimble body structure, which makes them capable of running and fixing the meticulously designed machines. Another employment preference is most directly women workers because they were easier to manage and to teach machine work to than men and could be paid less for the same job. Furthermore, single women were employer’s top interest because they were predicted less likely to strike and protest against the corporation. A surplus in female factory employment resulted in family problems because the “caretaker” of the family could very likely be working twelve hour days and oftentimes getting sick from unclean work conditions (Ellis and Esler 204). Their call for help in their industrial issues was soon answered by a group of organized laborers, more commonly referred to as a labor union.
This inequality continued to be the same at the outbreak of war. Many working-class women worked at home as housewives. They cooked, washed, cleaned and looked after their children. Many working class families had a lot of children because their contraception was expensive, which meant opportunities and time to gain employment outside of the home were limited. As new technology was developed, such as telephones and typewriters, more jobs became available for women.