Gender Roles In The Industrial Revolution

Gender Did Not Disappear, but Skill Overpowered the Role of Gender
During the period of antebellum Georgia, the Industrial Revolution began to take place. Meaning, wealth, labor, and top notch crops became important. In result of this, the need for slaves and their distinct skills increased. Understanding that the plantation owners had one goal only, which is to produce efficient crops that will encourage increased profit; one would say gender was set aside during labor that interfered with crop production. Crop production and quality were a main priority, and owners did not care what it took to reach their goal amount, or to have the best crop in the south. It is argued that femininity and gender roles did not exist during this period of labor. Labor was not based on gender,

but based on who could get the tasks done more efficiently. Berry effectively discussed this issue and many more differences between the plantations of Glynn and Wilkes County. Agreeing with Berry that gender disappeared during extreme labor, but also suggesting that gender did not disappear as a whole. Skill overpowered gender.

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

equal to or more work than the men. Unfortunately, even though women picked cotton faster, had heavier sacks filled with cotton, nursed babies, cooked meals, and plenty other womanly duties they received little to no breaks. For example, women were needed the most on plantations because they could perform more than just unskilled tasks. They were like the star players of a team, without them there would be no success for plantation owners. If a woman could do two times as much work as a man, there was no doubt the master would not work her just as hard as a man. Pregnant women or women that were overworked from male-like labor did not have the choice to choose another job or task. They could request it to their master, but most likely he denied their pleas. He may give the bondwomen a day to rest or little time until he, the master, felt the woman was ready to get back into the field with her small delicate hands; which carefully pulled the cotton off the stems. Unlike the men she worked alongside and picked up the slack behind, because of their big, less delicate hands which they tore cotton fibers with.
During Berry’s descriptions of life in Glynn and Wilkes County, there is a more distinct understanding of the role of gender shown in skilled labor besides unskilled field work. Skilled labor required for the slaves to have a craft or distinct characteristics about themselves, which resulted in special living conditions and privileges sometimes. Gender roles were more important when assigning skilled tasks because these were mainly tasks a woman could not replace a man in or vice versa. Skilled labor included jobs inside of homes such as blacksmiths, cooks, nursing most of the children, livestock herders, waiters, and even the job of birthing children. The splitting up of the labor was different upon plantations in the two counties. One, because they are in different areas and have different ways of organizing bondwomen and men. Glynn County, the low country plantations, were known for being large in size and population. They were also less social because there were enough of them to have their own cultures and court among one another. In contrast there is Wilkes County, which is considered the upcountry, and the plantations here were very small with about fifteen slaves on each plantation. The plantations here focused on social mobility because there were little people to court with, and these plantations were more family oriented. In comparison the two counties were dominated by the black population, and also many of the bond workers were women. Labor did differ between the two, as women were involved in almost everything men did in the upcountry, Wilkes County. These plantations were much smaller and all hands were needed where they could fit in. Even though women had to do men jobs, they were split into gender specific groups with supposedly easier jobs like plowing and stalk thinning; also known as gang labor systems. They even received breaks from time to time. The men and women of Glynn County’s plantations worked day in and day out. This was because low country plantations produced a finer cotton crop. Here male and females performed many of the same tasks besides in-house work, because the cotton required more attention. In result of this Glynn County plantations had tasks systems in which the slaves were placed under instead of gender specific groups. Gender played a major role in the master’s way of controlling families and marriages. Most of the owners liked for their slaves to mate and marry because it gave them more power over their slaves. They could control when the slave couples could visit, and even controlled how often the bondwomen could carry a baby. Babies to both county’s plantation owners meant more workers and more profit for them, the main point of slave labor. Baring children was a major tasks for women on plantations. Plantations in Wilkes County often benefited from the babies of their bondwomen because they made a profit off of them if the father came from a neighboring plantation. Glynn County plantations did not receive this privilege because most of their mating took place on their plantations. Another difference is the fact that Wilkes county’s slaves, mostly men, were more geographically aware of their surroundings because they got to travel more to see others slaves they possibly married. Since, it was only about fifteen of them on each plantation. The two counties were very alike when it came to skilled labor tasks. They started to differ when it came to the way they used gender in unskilled labor, courting, and baring of children. It was all because they differed in the way they wanted to have physical and mental control over their bondmen and women.
In Berry’s text, Glynn and Wilkes County did not differ much from one another besides social activities, population, task systems, and gang labor systems. Gender was lost mainly in unskilled labor because owners did not care what age nor gender slaves were. When it was harvest season all able, healthy, and working hands were used. Most of these hands being women as stated before, because of their “prime” hands and tendency to care more for the crops. Women’s main roles were no longer cooks and nurturers, but they became men-like figures when it came to unskilled labor. Gender reappeared as skilled labor distinctly required a male or female. Females could not have every skill a male could, just as a male could not birth more children as a women in order to help with field labor. The overlooking of gender was not done purposely to downgrade or push women to do more than they could. Even though, it actually did. The purpose was to have as many slaves, whether male or female working to get the required planting and harvesting completed. In order to do the main purpose behind slave labor, make a profit in the end.