Comparing Bowman's 'Slack And Calluses'

Have you ever wondered what it's like to work in a factory? Imagine dust, lint, smoke, and noise all in one crowded room. This is what Lyddie Worthen in the book, Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson has to face. Lyddie has faced many hardships when working in the factory. Lyddie is a young girl who is sent off to work to pay the debts for her family. Lyddie was fired from her first job and went to Lowell, Massachusetts to be a factory girl. When working, there are poor working conditions. Other workers have started a petition to improve the working conditions. Lyddie should not sign the petition because she is mentally strong and is getting paid well.

Bud remembered how his mother would read books to him before he went to bed. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. When Bud arrived at the library, he knew he was on the lam. He slept under one of the trees that were outside the library doors. Bud grabbed his blanket out his suit case and put it over his head. Bud decided to go to the mission to get some breakfast in the morning. He knew he would have to wake up extra early so he could get a good spot in line. Then, later he would go back to the mission for lunch.

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Beginning her speech, Kelley applies her credibility by placing statistics regarding the controversy of child labor laws, revealing that she is informed about this topic. Her credibility has a great connection to her purpose, she claims that the number of working girls doubled from census to census and girls from twelve to twenty years are working when they should not have to. Kelley then manifests her concern over these working girls by explaining that, “tonight,” while everybody else is snoozing away in bed, “these several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills,”(16-17). These words make her audience feel pity concerning those young girls and are a great reason to act against the unfair laws and regulations that violate both their human and women's rights, especially when they aren’t even getting paid fairly. By appealing to their emotion Florence Kelley wishes to push the women to act on her proposal of joining together and helping the poor young girls of their nation. Kelley continues to approach and influence the women’s sentiments and- hopefully- their actions by including her scandalized argument that in “Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night,” (29-31). She decides to include the ‘bobbins’ of sewing machines in factories to illustrate how short and how young they are to be working in dangerous factories where their rights are ignored, girls at that age should worry more about going to school instead of sacrificing themselves to bring money for bread to their homes. One would understand that many families are living through poverty due to the economy being at a very depressing state and they need the most they can do to increase their financial position to survive in their society, then again, girls should be

In the first section of the chapter the authors talk about how during World War II women made great strides toward becoming equals with men. They did this by going to work in factories. Women in the work place were not uncommon before the WWII era, but the actual women working in the factories changed.

Women’s history in the United States has always been represented as a struggle for rights. Wealth and status were tied to either their fathers or husbands. In the early 1900s, women were afforded the traditional roles of society. The majority of women worked in the home. If they were of the 18% young or poor women, they also worked in factories as laborers, manufacturing items for the booming industrial revolution (U.S. Department of Labor, 1980). During this time period the workplace was not in compliance with current safety standards. There was no minimum wage yet, work conditions were horrible and they worked long hours, “In 1900, the average workweek in manufacturing was 53 hours,” (Fisk, 2003). Women took “pink

Slacks and Calluses follows the story of two school teachers, Constance Bowman and Clara Marie Allen in San Diego in the summer of 1943. Constance Bowman was a journalist and a high school English teacher while Clara Marie Allen was a high school art teacher. To help for the war, they spent their entire summer vacation building bombers in a bomber factory. The book revealed a lot of information regarding the social class in the lives of women. There is enough evidence in the book to show that it does not support the idea that the country embraced the idea of women leaving the home to work in a factory to help with war efforts. The women in Slacks and Calluses mostly worked at the factories because they didn’t have many other opportunities.

The novel Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory is a story written about two women’s summer in an airplane factory during World War II. Constance Bowman Reid and Clara Marie Allen describe what life was like for women who worked in factories during this time. They explain how women’s apparel determined their social class and how they were treated; factories welcomed them into the workforce, but the world could not accept women being away from home; and some women worked out of patriotism, but others worked to support their families.

Throughout time, women have been considered housewives and mothers. Not all women stayed home, throughout history women have worked, mainly clerical jobs, teaching, charity workers, and other less demanding physical work. It was never a new thing that women were in the work force, it was the impact the propaganda posters and WWII made on the women in that workforce. This propaganda poster; titled “We Can Do It” features a beautiful women with her arm flexed and she is in her work coveralls, above her it say “We can do it.” the author is J. Howard Miller, he uses pathos and ethos to inspire a social movement that increased the number of working women, and changed the face of the workforce.

“Girl Fridays”: In the 1920s, many young women go to work as secretaries or “Girl Fridays”.

The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their

Cheap Amusements by Kathy Peiss is about the women of the early 20th century and the roles of the women in the work place along with their leisure time in New York City. The novel covers several key aspects of the way women changed their roles in the work place specifically factories during this time period and the social injustice that women faced when it came to free time. It dives into the amusement that women would seek whether they were high class or middle class. It contrasts the differences between men and women in the social aspect of life after work as well. Whether that was the men at the bars or country clubs with other women while the women would enjoy going to the park or a dancing halls. It all truly depended on the discretionary income that families would bring in. While the book is not the most interesting book I have ever read it still hold true to do. It is also surprising that this time period is not even over 100 years ago, yet it feels as if it was 300 years ago with how the times have changed. Kathy has a take on women in society in a whole new light that changes people thoughts and ideas of what truly went on during this period.

In the Case of the Missing Time, Chet Craig, manager of the Norris Company’s Central Plant, deals with work overload and finds it difficult to complete many of the important tasks at work. He begins his morning by stating, “this is going to be the day to really get things done.” Yet, in spite of his intentions to accomplish the projects

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard is caught in a cold marriage and a constrictive house. The same goes for Sarah Penn in Mary Wilkins Freeman “The Revolt of “Mother.’” Despite the fact that both stories share the topics of imprisonment and control, physically and inwardly, the ladies in the stories have diverse responses to their circumstances. Sarah battles the confinements without holding back, taking her opportunity, while Mrs. Mallard adopts a motionless strategy and is just liberated through the death of Mr. Mallard.