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The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on Family Life and Women

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The Industrial Revolution and its Impact on Family Life and Women
World Civilization II

Edmund Burke once said," Make revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions." This comical yet straightforward quote can be related to a time in history called the Industrial Revolution. Throughout history there has been a political, economical, social and cultural revolution. These revolutions has had complex and long lasting impacts on people’s lives, one revolution that has forever changed history is the Industrial Revolution. The term revolution is defined as a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving. The Industrial revolution was a cultural revolution that impacted people’s lives forever. …show more content…

There were less and less extended families living together and more nuclear families (Mom, Dad, and kids) because of this new separation and focus on the individual. Also families were having fewer kids because instead of the kids being profitable and being able to help on the farm, financially they were more of a burden so the birth rate went down during the Industrial Revolution (Gilbert).
There is very good reason to believe that primitive families living in the pre-industrialization age suffered less from stress and frustration and were more satisfied with their ways of life than privatized families who were faced with the inevitable social and psychological problems as the Industrial Revolution evolved. In contemporary terms, the Industrial Revolution is viewed as a two edged sword. Despite the positive changes brought on by it, its impact on society at large and on families in specific has inspired many researchers.
The era of pre-industrialization focused mainly on agricultural production which was carried out by men, allowing family households to become self-sustained and more relegated to domestic life in the home. The pre-industrial ways of life led to a type of familiar division of labor that left separate and independent spheres of control for both women and men. In the pre-industrial family life, the husband and wife had separate plots of lands, and separate crafts and trading enterprises whereby each spouse retained control over their own profits.

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