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Life for women during the industrial revolution
Women's life during the industrial revolution
Life for women during the industrial revolution
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Throughout history, women have been considered inferior to men, in areas such as the work place. This view of women being lesser spawned from the rules of law and religion, and created ideals by which common European families lived by if they were to be considered socially acceptable. The Industrial Revolution established certain circumstances that amplified these ideals which subordinated women. (Columbia University Press).Through these new ideals, women’s poor wages, and certain labor drawbacks during the Revolution, the initial proactive feministic movement began. A family ideal arose due to the middle-classes’ prosperity being linked to the Industrial Revolution. This family type expressed the idea that the father was the lead of the house, and the wife was inferior. (Speilvogel 662). Before the Industrial Revolution, family relations were strengthened since the father, mother, and even children of the household had to work together to earn enough wealth, especially if they were working class. However, the industrious shift to factory work changed women’s value in earning the family money. A family ideal was created through this change that idolized the …show more content…
(The Family and Social Trends: Overview). Poor wages were common for women who worked during the Industrial Revolution. These poor wages were often an effect of women being limited to lower-paying jobs, primarily because “Men often perceived women as a threat and preferred to have no women working in factories, a desire that was almost met except in the textile and garment industries,” (Industrial and Urban Classes). These limitations provoked women to control their own wages, and widen educational opportunities for themselves, so they could pursue jobs beyond the industrial workplace. ("Replacing the Mold: Alternatives to the Middle–Class
Female employment was concentrated in a very small number of low paid areas. The memoirs provided by Emma Griffith in her book are mainly from male perspective. Therefore, the information provided by them can be misleading and in my opinion, often a lot is missed out of what men did not consider as relevant but in fact is the information which really needs be shared. Above that, the stereotype existed during this time. Men were considered as the breadwinner and women were supposed to do the household work and take care of children. But in fact, Industrial Revolution in part was fuelled by the economic necessity of many women, single and married, to find waged work outside their
Before the introduction of industrialization, the family and the household was the basic unit of manufacturing in Western Europe. The family members would work together in commerce, and agricultural...
During the American Industrial Revolution, women began to work in factories, leading to conflicts in 19th century society that would eventually result in the Cult of Domesticity—the belief that women’s only responsibilities existed at home. This aimed to establish the subservient woman and the husband as the master of the house as the social norm. Kate Chopin's bleak but realistic depiction in her work, The Awakening, reveals her reasonable attitude during the Second Great Awakening in American history. Men coveted control and achieved it by undermining women and being their superior. Society followed a mob mentality and accepted gender inequality as a social norm. Subjugation of women lead to panic and mania in men and the oppression made
A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.
The Second Industrial Revolution had a major impact on women's lives. After being controlled fro so long women were experiencing what it was like to live an independent life. In the late nineteenth century women were participating in a variety of experiences, such as social disabilities confronted by all women, new employment patterns, and working class poverty and prostitution. These experiences will show how women were perceived in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Many of us complain about the tough hours we work or the amount of chores we have to complete, but think about the truly harsh conditions that young girls and women had to work in the textile industry with very little pay and no accolades. Back in the 18th century, when the Industrial Revolution struck, it made it hard for female mill workers to enjoy being employed. Due to the terrible working conditions, the amount of hours worked, and the low wages were a few of the similarities that the female mill workers in England and Japan shared.
Industrialization had a major impact on the lives of every American, including women. Before the era of industrialization, around the 1790's, a typical home scene depicted women carding and spinning while the man in the family weaves (Doc F). One statistic shows that men dominated women in the factory work, while women took over teaching and domestic services (Doc G). This information all relates to the changes in women because they were being discriminated against and given children's work while the men worked in factories all day. Women wanted to be given an equal chance, just as the men had been given.
Many of people today feel trapped inside their homes, just how the women of Pre-Industrial Europe felt. Working day in and day out inside the homes, just to keep the family together, and make a little money on the side, these women were an integral part of Pre-Industrial families. Not only were the women important to Pre-Industrial European families, but so were the households. Much of the money was made in the households, and this is where families either succeeded or failed. The household and women of Pre-Industrial Europe played an integral role in the economy of the families, and more importantly, the women of these households kept them running smoothly. Without either of these important aspects of life in Pre-Industrial Europe, it is safe to say that the families would have collapsed, due to a lack of organization and structures. Pre-Industrial Europe, in which the women and the household were “the factories” per se, due to the income they generated, was much different from the Europe we know today. Leading into the Industrialization of Europe beginning in the late 1700's and lasting through the early 1800's, the household played an integral role in the family’s income. Without the household, the families would literally collapse, due to a lack of organization and stability. Within these important family sub-units, there was one married couple, their children, the family’s servants, and in some cases, depending upon the region of Europe, there were grandparents, aunts and uncles. Not only did the father and servants of the house work, but also the women and children. Also, in the case of there being more than one generation of family in a single household, depending upon the region of Europe, the grandparents, aunts, and uncles would also work within the house. Once the children of these households reached a certain age, usually the early teens, they were sent off to work in a house as a servant. These servants were different then the servants of today, as they worked for room, board, and food, not waiting on the family. Once they started to generate income, the teens would save up the money necessary to begin their own family. However, there were the few exceptions; teens that did not work as servants, and ended up marrying into an existing household. This however,...
With many craftsmen out of jobs and more hungry laborers coming from Europe, the society was changing and growing and innovations had to keep up with that. “Pressure for change came from several directions. Immigrants from Europe, especially the Middle Atlantic region, increased the supply of urban labor” (332). Men came from Europe in the hopes that they could create big industries, especially because they knew that there was enough space and people to make it happen successfully. One of the biggest industries to arise during the industrial revolution was the addition of textile mills. These textile mills could quadruple the amount of work one woman could do at home. These factories provided many people with employment but many of the employees complained that they were working long hours without enough money earned to compensate for it. “But increasing competition in the textile industry cut profits, and by the 1830s, operatives found wages cut, boardinghouse rents raised, or workloads increased. Twice, in 1834 and again in 1836, women took strike action to resist these changes” (351). Most women that could not find jobs before the industrial revolution gained them after but they felt the injustice that was being put on them. Consequently, it was very popular for the employees to build labor unions to fight against what republicanism was turning out to
The role of women in society has always been an issue throughout the ages and throughout Western Europe, and more or less all over the world. Before the age of the Enlightenment, or the Dark Ages, women were always seen as secondary to men in all aspects. Most reasons were religious, while others were just the way life was then. By the late 18th century, at the time of the French Revolution and the continuance of the Enlightenment era, the role of women in society began changing drastically as the lights of the world were now open with this brand new enlightened era. Women began holding jobs, yet still did not receive the same privileges as men.
Working class families were different in some ways from middle class families. Often in a marriage, the man’s wages were not enough...
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
Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had been so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives.
These questions and the objective of my paper are significant to explore because they will help me to better understand my current status as a women in our capitalist economy. Understanding the origin of women’s economic oppression, and other inequalities, is a part of reaching an idea of how to remedy our current situation as women. It is important to me to answer the questions I have laid forth in order to take small steps in personally and possibly publicly, changing the current position of women.
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be