Tony Ge
History 162 5/22/2017
The Similarities of Female Mill Workers in England and Japan
In the course of history, both Japan and England has made significance success in world military and economy. The two island nations (Document A) experienced an industrial revolution and became the economic giant respectively in the 19th century and the 20th century (DBQ 218). As a saying goes that Science and technology constitute the primary productive force. The industrial revolution also brought great changes to textile industry
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in both England and Japan. The textile revolution took place in England and Japan successively in the eighteenth century (DBQ 217) and the nineteenth century (DBQ 218). Textile, the product manufactured by a series of process of spinning and weaving has thus witnessed a tremendous increase in productivity with the application of machines. This phenomenon also brought a large amount of female worker to textile factories. Though there was a time gap of the two revolutions and a large geographical distance of the two countries, did the female worker share any similarities or differences in their experience in the textile mills? Generally speaking, they shared more common grounds. In Japan and England, female workers suffered from low payment, low social status, bad working conditions and long working hours. In addition, the female workers accounts for the cast majority for the work force in the textile industry. Last but not least, a large amount of female workers were in a very young age. Firstly, the female workers accounted for the vast majority of the work force in the textile industry both in England and in Japan. From the chart "gender and age of silk factory workers in five English towns" showed that in the year 1844, female workers account for 63 percent to 96 percent of the work force in England, leaving a percentage of 4 to 36 of their male counterparts (Document C). This was the same case in Japan. In the year of 1901, a quantities survey on 205 factories indicated that female worker account for 92 percent of the worker force (Document D). As described in Document B--two pictures of the mills, textile mills in Japan and England were full of female workers. Secondly, most of the female workers were at a very young age when they started their "career" in textile mills.
It was estimated that nearly 35 percent to 53 percent of female workers were less than 16 years old in England (Document C), an age that was illegal for employment in modern society. Some of them were even under the age of ten. "I think the youngest children is about seven...I dare say there are twenty under nine years old" the description of the situations in Mr. Wilson's Mill from a worker named Hannah Goode in 1833 (Document J). In addition, a report in 1841 showed that 43% percent of the female workers were no more than 20 years old in four English textile industries in cotton, silk, lace and woolen manufacturing (Document C). In Japan, in the silk factory in Nagano, Japan 1901, 66 percent of female worker were under 20 years old. Female worker were more or less working for gaining more family income in order to release their financial burden. However, did they really contributed to family income and did they get the reasonable payment from the …show more content…
employers? The answer was definitely not.
Though female workers were more skilled in spinning and weaving, they received far less payment than their male counterpart, which was, in some case, even less than that of their child. A complaint from a female worker wrote that "My husband earns SC. a week; I earn 2s., the eldest child 4s. 6d., second child 3s. 6d., the third child 2s. 6d." (Document F). This illustrated that an adult female mother was paid less than her smallest child (eleven years old) and nearly one sixth of the wage of her husband. The wage of the female mother accounts for less than one twelfth of the total family income. Mill wages report in Hyed, English depicted that the average daily wage of the 114 female loom operators was 26 pence and 40 pence for male workers (Document G). Female workers got only nearly 65 percent of that of their male counterparts. The average daily wage of Japanese female and male cotton mill worker was at a ratio of 9/17, 9/16 for seasonal agricultural wageworker and 13/27 for silk factory worker in the year 1892 (Document H). The female workers received almost half of that of male workers. Their payment was not enough for a living when compared with the price level at that time. As described in "Rice in Nagano" that "I quart of rice cost I sen, I quart made about 15 servings", which uncovered that female not only received far less Thant male workers but also got such a low wage that was not even enough for making a living (Document
I). Despite of the low and unequal payment, long working hours was another bad treatment for female textile workers. Working hours of textile workers in England and Japan were generally speaking, no less than 13 hours a day even for little children. A nine year-old girl named Ellen Hooten in England worked more than 14 hours in weekday and nine hours in Saturday, the same time period as adult workers in 1840; in Japan the normal working day in a plant was thirteen to fourteen hours; in particularly busy seasons, the time would extend about three and half hours from 4:30 in the morning to 10 pm in the evening in 1990 (Document E). A description of the working hours in Okaya, Japan in 1990 had it that "The workers were roused from their bed at 4:05 A.M., sent to work from 4:30 to 6...for a total of fourteen hours and twenty minutes" (document E). In modern society, the statutory working time was no more than 8 hours a day and no more than 40 hours a week and more hourly wages shall be paid if an employee works overtime. From the contrast, it was not hard to find that female textile workers were being over exploited and oppressed. Furthermore, both the textile workers in Japan and England did not have a high status and were treated badly by their employers. This could be seen from the following aspects. Firstly, they did not get humanistic and friendly treatment when got sick; instead, it could be the reason that they lost their job. A report named "reasons Dekesegi female mill workers left their jobs" had it that nearly 30 percent of female workers were laid off because of illness and blood relation's illness though some of they might got illness for the tiring and long time work (Document K). Anohter report on the Japanese silk workers had it that only an average of 10 percent of female workers was glad that they had worked in the silk filatures, which was largely due to the treatment they got when sick. Secondly, female workers in textile mills received little respect from the society. "It was ...considered a disgrace to do so; the epithet "factory girl" was the most insulting that could be applied to a young woman and the girls who had once been in the factory could never find employment elsewhere" (Document N). This was the social realty of English factory female workers. For female workers in Japanese factories, they were treated even worse. "The young operatives, single and vulnerable, were open targets for personal whims and sexual abuse by these low-ranking supervisors" (Document P). Female textile workers failed to get appropriate protection and respect for their employers and male workmates. Furthermore, female workers did not get freedom and economic independence though they had been one of the family money earners since their parents signed contract that had very strict restriction on their own free will (Document O). The rise of the industrial revelation has also been discussed throughout history. People were more or less concentrated on the material side such as the advanced machines, the increasing productivity and the strengthen of the national economic power. However, when shifting the focus from material to people especially the relatively vulnerable female worker. It was not hard to find that female textile workers in England and Japan shared a similar "fate" even being geographically distant. They started their "career" at an early age and contributed to the large amount of the work force in the textile industry. However, though they made great contribution to the national economy, they did not receive the reasonable and humanistic treatment. From the aforementioned analysis, it could be summarized that they received low payment, low social status and bad treatment (even abuse) and had to work long hours to make a living. Difference was that female textile workers in Japan had to quit their job once getting married and focused on household works while for their counterpart in England, they could continue the work in the textile mill.
During the Japanese Industrial Revolution, female workers played a big role in the silk factories, but there were many negatives that came with that. Every factory worker during the Japanese Industrial Revolution had to work hard. Factories hired women and they were treated unfairly. Also the factories were very unsanitary which caused even more trouble for the workers. Female workers in Japanese Silk Factories: Did the costs outweigh the benefits? For the female silk factory workers the costs outweighed the benefits for two reasons. The first reason was that there were long, hard working hours. The second reason was that men got paid a lot more than women did.
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.
Imagine being forced to work in conditions that might cause you to lose a limb, to be beaten daily, or to be left with long term respiratory conditions. These terrible conditions were realities to families who worked in textile factories in the 1700’s. England was the first to adopt textile factories which would benefit with mass production of cotton material. According to the power point, “Industrial Revolution; Life in English Factories”, low and unskilled workers, often children, ran the machines and moved material, this helped lower the cost of goods. During this time, commissions investigated the working conditions of the factories.
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
Kelley then uses the example of a 13-year-old girl from Pennsylvania. She calls the workers “breadwinners” (12) and then says that the largest number of these breadwinners were young females. This shows that the young women are working intensively and are the income of their families. Also, in the previously stated quote (“Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
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