Early on in the Lowell Mills, the working conditions were extremely terrible due to lack of safety and pay. The Industrial Revolution was a time that invented efficient tools to make life better. This also, was the time period of the steam engine and cotton gin that sped up the process of work. Unfortunately during these times, many people had different opinions about women working in the mills, but are these views valid? The different opinions of the Lowell Girls were women should not work, women have the right to work, and women should work, because it is the right thing to do. The opinions on how women should enter the workplace varied. One opinion of the Lowell Girls are that women should not work. “Arranged to make the working time …show more content…
throughout the year average 11 hours per day” (Document B). The hours of the Lowell Mill women were very long and consumed. “We were not aware, until within a few days, of the modus operandi of the factory powers in this village of forcing poor girls from their quiet homes to become their tools and, like the Southern slaves, to give up their life and liberty…” (Document C). Also, people thought that women were incapable of working, because they were only educated on house chores like cooking and cleaning. Altogether, people thought that women should not work in industries. Another opinion of the Lowell Girls are that women have the right to work.
“I think that the factory is the best place for me and if any girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell” (Document F). Employment is a right that women should have if they so desire to work and having a place to accomplish this should also be a right. “To be able to earn one’s living by laboring with the hands, should be reckoned among female accomplishments…” (Document D). Women should be able to be the breadwinner of the family and not have to step aside from working. Women have the right to work to make a living for their family and should not have to be financially supported by a man. Finally, one other opinion was that women should work in the industries. “To obtain this constant importation of female hands from the country, it is necessary to secure the moral protection of their characters while they are resident in Lowell” (Document A). This represents how women should work, because it portrays how important it is to keep them safe so more will want to work. “...should she amend her present system, it is more probable that she would be imitated than successfully contended against…” (Document E). This explains how working helps women serve as role models to other workers in the mills. Women should work because they can help and improve the work
environment. The opinions of the Lowell girls are women should not work, women have the right to work, and women should work. Overall, I think that women should work is the most valid reason, because women can contribute a lot to the workforce. They provide diversity and improve the work environment. I believe that there should not be a law requiring women to work, but if a woman wants to work, she should be allowed. This question is very significant, because it shows the differences in perspectives on women working. It also helps to understand the importance of women on the working production.
What would one expect to be the sentiment of a young women who worked in the Lowell textile mills? It is just such a depressing story; and the sad heroines are the young women of Lowell - Lucy Larcom- who Stephen Yafa portrays in his excerpt “Camelot on the Merrimack.” A perception through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old Lucy Larcom reveals that, “For her and the other young girls, the long and tedious hours they spent tending to demanding machines robbed them of their childhood.” The imagery in “Camelot on the Merrimack,” from Big Cotton by Stephen H. Yafa disclose the working conditions in those sordid mills.
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.
A multitude of mills going up created back water which hindered the mill’s wheels from turning more freely, but with more competitors came more jobs to the area. In addition to more work came the need for more workers. Francis Lowell of Massachusetts decided to make a wholesome atmosphere to attract young country women to his mill to work. He offered wholesome living with room and board, decent pay, strict rules, and curfews to enforce the safety of the girls that worked for him. These workers came to be known as the “Lowell girls”.
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.
Dublin, Thomas. "Women, work and protest in the early Lowell Mills: `the oppressing hand of avarice would enslave us.'" Labor History 16(1975): 99-116.
During the mid-nineteenth century, as the industrial revolution was taking shape, so too, was an economic system in Lowell, Massachusetts. The system involved a series of textile mills, which hired mostly women from rural towns, which were slowly giving way to the large cities as a result of industrialization. The textile mills hired the women to work long hours in brutal, often dangerous conditions, and many paid high rent to company boardinghouses. This may sound like feudalism, but it was, in fact, an example of oligarchical capitalism. However, it shares features with the conditions in "Norma Rae" and "Matewan".
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
The first young lady Ann Eggley had worked in the mines since the age of 7. The mine in which she worked did not subject her to having to work with naked men and boys. . Everyone wore “trousers”. The men did not “insult” the females. She was also provided a” good supper” however sometimes they did not get enough and there also wouldn’t be enough time to eat or drink. She also, like the other female interviewees worked 12 shifts. Although she worked at mine that was not as bad as Patience Kershaw, she still was overworked as a female.
In the 1800's the construction of cotton mills brought about a new phenomenon in American labor. The owners needed a new source of labor to tend these water powered machines and looked to women. Since these jobs didn't need strength or special skills th...
The time of the Industrial Revolution was one of immense change for both men and women. The new advancements of British machinery that sparked the Industrial Revolution transformed the economy and way of life in the United States, specifically New England and neighboring states. The recent developments lead to children and women, most of whom were immigrants, to work in factories to produce textiles and ready-made clothing. The factory owners of Lowell exploited the girls’ safety and time, yet the occupation provides opportunities that were not even imaginable before.
The Lowell textile mills were a new transition in American history that explored working and labor conditions in the new industrial factories in American. To describe the Lowell Textile mills it requires a look back in history to study, discover and gain knowledge of the industrial labor and factory systems of industrial America. These mass production mills looked pretty promising at their beginning but after years of being in business showed multiple problems and setbacks to the people involved in them.
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.
received the right to work menial jobs for minimum pay with less job security. She has
When you think of a CEO of a company or of world political leaders, do you think of a man or of a woman? Many, if not most of us, see these positions as being held by men. In this essay, I will explain why women are still not equal to men. In the first paragraph I will discuss inequalities that happen in the workplace. The second section will show the differences that occur within the athletic world. Thirdly, I will explain the differences in education and home life. Even though we are approaching the twenty-first century, women in our society are still not equal to men.
If one takes a closer look at the issues surrounding the differences between the male and female roles in the workforce and in education, one will notice that women tend to be one step below men on the "status" or "importance" ladder.