Essay On Slacks And Calluses

Women were broken up into three different classes: Women of the upper-working class, women of the lower-working class, and the underclass women. The worst of all of the women were the underclass women. These women maintained a very different lifestyle than the others. Their clothes often consisted of dirty and torn skirts and blouses. Messy hair. They had no education and respected jobs. These underprivileged women mostly relied on relief organization. Some even resorted to prostitution to make a living for themselves when there was no other alternative. The most respected of the classes for American women to fall under was the upper-working class. These women were immediately

When manufacturing plants started booming, they found business. Women became valuable factory workers because of their ability to complete complex tasks in the work place. Also, having willingness to labor for an inexpensive pay rate because they were in need boosted their chances of employment. In fact, employers needed them and were happy at the fact that they weren 't too costly to hire. In the document, Morals of Manufactures (1837), it states, “Many of the girls are in the factories because they have too much pride for domestic service.”(Chapter 9 Page 223) As stated before, women were looked over as far being capable of anything else other than a house wife and or mother. Some women worked for pay, as well as to prove that they were more than what society labeled them. This allowed women to make their own money and not be forced to completely live off their husbands. Also, this gave women a freedom and sensibility to become more independent.

Before 1840 women were viewed as something that needed to be taken care of. They could not own property, fathers would not mention their daughters in their wills, women could not be treasurer of their own companies, it was the husband’s responsibility. Only seven vocations were available to them outside of the home in the late 1840’s; widows would receive no share of her husband’s property or his families, and if one did not marry or remarry she had to enter one of the few employments for her or be a charity case for her relatives. When factory jobs became available to women they were quickly taken because it gave women a way to be independent and not a burden to their loved ones, but earn and spend their own money however the wished. For once

However, not only did women work in the fields they also produce goods, and services; such as clothing, personal hygiene items, and food to be sold in order to build -up their coffer’s through that of their overabundance of supplies. This impact took place during the 1700’s and beyond, when women from all aspects of life filled these domestic jobs while working for very little pay; getting absolutely nothing at all for their work. During the 1800’s, however, this all changed for women and soon these women we’re categorized as being unskilled workers this causing tremendous consequences for these women; especially when the men return for war and once again took on the gender roles to which women were now a custom too.

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.

Woman along with the children were affected while working during the industrial revolution. During 1834 and 1836 Harriet Martineau, a British feminist and abolitionist, visited America and enthusiastically embraced the social implications of the Industrial Revolution, (DTA, 223). Martineau compared the lifestyle of women to slaves and said the United States contradicted the principles of the Declaration of Independence. She did believe though with some progress that it could become New England’s new industrial order. One of the Mill factories Martineau visited, Waltham Mill, was a prime example of the scheduled lifestyle of women mill workers. Women Mill workers of all ages worked at Waltham Mill, which I compared to a boarding school because of their strict schedules. The ladies had a time to wake up, to be at work, to eat, and to go to school. A lot of women did not mind the harsh conditions they lived and worked in because they fought for their equality of rights for a long time now.

Women had different perspectives during World War 2. Many served in different branches of armed forces. Some labored in war productions plants. Most women stayed at home and had other responsibilities to raise children, balance check books, and some labored in war-related office jobs, while the men went to war. In addition to factory work and other front jobs about 350,000 women joined the Armed services, serving at home and abroad. “Rosie the Riveter,” later became a popular propaganda for women. While women worked in a variety of positions closed to them the industry saw the greatest increase in female’s workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943,

The industrial revolution swept through Europe and North America during the 19th century, affecting the class structure, economy, government, and even the religious practices of everyone who lived in or did commerce with these new "industrialized nations." It made the modern age possible, but it was not without its "growing pains." The position of women before the industrial revolution was often equivalent to chattel, and then as now, they were expected to take naturally to housework and child rearing. The history of working women in the Industrial Revolution is rife with accounts of abuse and tragedy, but overall it improved their position in capitalist societies. Below, I will explain the

Around the early 1900’s, concern for child and women labor grew throughout the American public. In the factories, women faced discrimination as employers would usually pay woman about one-half the salary as a man for the same job received. During this period, working conditions were terrible as these factories were not air-conditioned or heated and women worked for

Women were traditionally seen as the weaker sex – second-class citizens with a lower social status than men. A woman’s place was in the home. Men did the “heavier” labor, like plowing and hunting.

Slacks and Calluses, presents the summer of 1943 from the perspective of Constance Bowman and Clara Marie Allen, two school teachers, who set aside summer vacation to help with war efforts in a bomber factory. Coming into the air craft industry, they had no idea what to expect, “We were the kind of girls who knew nothing about airplanes except that they had wings and they fly.” (p.1). Obstacles they faced included an unjust work place and harassment. Women who wore skirts and rings on their fingers received a greater amount of respect from men, than those who wore slacks and calluses on their fingers. Despite stumbling blocks, Constance and Clara worked in the factories out of a sense of patriotism.

Set in the year 1943, Slack and Calluses was written, during the time of World War II. Constance Bowman and her good friend Clara Marie Allen, decided that they would work at their local Bomber Factory in San Diego. Despite being laughed at and told that they couldn’t do it, Bowman and Allen decided to prove everyone that laughed at them wrong. As a woman during this time, performing hard labor was a man’s job. However, the women took the job and every challenge that came with it, both inside and outside of the workplace.

During the Industrial Revolution, women were, in general, considered socially inferior. A “good woman” was expected to stay at home, raise

Preceding 1914 (the official start of the war), many women who took up jobs were single and they almost always got paid considerably less than men (Braybon 150). It was accepted and expected that jobs that required any discipline or training whatsoever were inherently “jobs for men” (Braybon 150). This left women to do many domestic jobs, such as: cooking, washing, ironing and other jobs one would associate with a “housewife” (“Home Front”). One of the most common (real) jobs for women before the war was being a school teacher, because it was not physical and the only necessary prerequisites was good education. By 1911, there was an estimated 187,000 teachers in Britain (“Home Front”). Many women of a middle class social standing viewed their own jobs as “temporary”, as they were urged to stop working when marriage was an option (Braybon 150). It was common that lower class women had to constantly jump in and out of work according to their volatile financial needs; they were very underestimated and undervalued by bosses from work industries (Braybon 151). On the other hand, middle class (white) women rarely worked after they got married