The Role of Women during the Industrial Revolution Essay

First, let’s talk about what caused the women’s rights movement and how it not only paved the way for the abolitionist movement but, how powerful the campaigns were when combined. In the nineteenth century, the women’s main role was to be a house wife. Women were often stuck at home doing chores and taking care of the children. They were not allowed to vote, hold a title in public office, work, own property, or even get an education (Women 's Rights. (n.d.), 2016). The women of the nineteenth century wanted to change those rules so they fought for equality. There were many women who were brave enough to stand up for their rights and publicly speak about their thoughts and civil liberties towards equality between men and women. In

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.

The Second Industrial Revolution had a major impact on women's lives. After being controlled fro so long women were experiencing what it was like to live an independent life. In the late nineteenth century women were participating in a variety of experiences, such as social disabilities confronted by all women, new employment patterns, and working class poverty and prostitution. These experiences will show how women were perceived in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Women’s rights began due to the fact that the only big role a woman had was in the household. Their responsibility was to raise their children and to education them in religious matters. Because of such responsibilities women began arguing that they themselves had to be educated in order to educate their children. The fact that women only had a few rights went against religious beliefs of equality. According to the Bible, a man and woman are both equal in the eyes of God. The man is commanded to be the head of the household and the wife should be submissive to that authority. However, that does not mean the woman is any less important than a man, it just means the man and woman play different roles. In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention took place, led by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott. At the Convention, women discussed religious and moral issues, as well as the role of women in society. These women insisted that they were held to the same standard as men and that they should be granted the same rights and privileges. Regardless of practicing Christianity, women were viewed in society as little more than slaves, with not much of a voice and with only slightly more rights. At the Convention they founded the Declaration of Sentiments, adding to the words of the Declaration of Independence saying “all men and women are created equal.” They put forth the ideas of allowing women to vote, to control their property

After the Civil War, the movement of women’s suffrage had a new inspiration, as they used African American suffrage as a stepping stone towards women’s suffrage. Organizations, such as the National Association Women’s Suffrage Association and Women’s Christian Temperance, had clear goals to reform the urban areas with women’s suffrage. As this empowering reform took place, women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries started to question their own roles within society. As women faced opposition and had diminished roles within society, the women of the late 19th century sought equality.

During early abolitionist movements campaigns focused on returning the slaves to Africa. However after failing from lack of venue finances the Second Great Awakening brought forth new ideas. Previously, slaves were considered “property” of their masters and had no say in their work loaded lives. Reform movements looked to provide slaves with basic human rights. Their main argument brought forth the fact that they were humans, just like their white masters, and deserved to be treated as such. This was argued by claiming they were the “brothers and sisters” of the white slave owners. They argued that The Declaration of Independence, a basis of American democracy, says that “All men are created equal,” so they should be treated that way. This also presented itself as a women's rights issue, as female slaves were especially vulnerable to their white masters’ abusive natures (Document C). The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 officially launched the modern women's rights movement. At this convention women's suffrage advocate Elizabeth Stanton argued over the right to vote. She claimed women deserved a voice in the government because they were taxed and already had to abide by the government (Document I). This movement sought to give equal rights to women, as well as increase the number of voters, which would further expand democratic ideals. Women's rights movements also grew when

Women bearing the weight of unfairly biased ideals set by the society standards of the 1800s led to the reformation called the suffrage movement. Each woman endured the impossible guidelines of how a gentlewoman should conduct herself. Set in a time period in which one’s reputation meant prosperity or ruin, the public view meant everything. The suffrage movement of the early 1800s was influenced by the first industrial revolution. Reformation was not widespread until a majority of women joined the second industrial revolution. The taxing demand of working and sustaining the household, pushed women to their limit and they were no longer subdued by imaginings of a perfect life. Equality rights were not immediately seen from the first generation of women in the 1800s. The later oppressed generations of women pushed for equality and were successful. The right to vote and hold positions in office was the goal of the women’s suffrage movement. Without any political rights, the reform took longer because men had to vote for their cause. Decades later in the 1920s, the nineteenth Amendment was passed for women’s legal right to vote. The suffrage movement marked the twentieth century with one of the first victories of democratic civil rights. The controlling restraints of society’s idealistic views of how a woman should tend to her household and not expand beyond her civil duties led to

The women 's suffrage movement, the time when women fought for their rights, began in the year 1848 and continued on all the way through the 1860s. Although women in the new republic had important roles in the family, the house, and other obligations, they were excluded from most rights. These rights included political and legal rights. Due to their gender, they have been held back because they did not have as much opportunities as the men did. The new republic made alterations in the roles of women by disparaging them in society. During this era, men received a higher status than women. Because women were forced to follow laws without being allowed to state their opinions, they tried to resist laws, fight for their freedom and strive to gain equality with men. This leads to feminism, the belief in political, social, and economic equality between men and women. It is the feminist efforts that have successfully tried to give rights that men had, to women who have been denied those rights. Upon the deprivation of those rights, the Seneca Falls convention and the Declaration of Sentiments helped women gain the privileges and opportunities to accomplish the task of equality that they have been striving for.

In the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution caused a sharp differentiation between gender roles. Men and women were thought to have completely different roles. Men were seen as workers while women were seen as home-makers. Men and women were totally opposites each other. Marriage was seen as the only proper locale for sex, and women didn’t have any rights in their marriage lives. Birth controls were absent, and abortion was forbidden since 1800s. Sex within marriage usually meant frequent pregnancy, especially as some areas had laws that a husband had his rights to his wife’s body. The death rate for a woman delivering a child was 1 in 200 in 1870 (Radek-Hall), so having children could be psychologically traumatic for women.

In the early-mid 19th century, women began to demand change in American society, as they challenged the traditional roles of women politically, socially, and economically.

The Industrial Revolution was a movement in America where investors began to produce machines, mechanisms, and systems that contributed to America’s prosperity. This powerful uprising directly impacted women and eventually society also. To start, women began to gain independence in the work force. Women were now allowed to work in factories and industries, but were treated rather poorly under harsh conditions. The Abuse of Female Workers depicts how young women worked seventy hours a week in difficult and warm working conditions. As a result of working long, hard hours the girls had little to no time to rest. Next in the same document, it discusses how women were hired over slaves. This is because women were supposedly cheaper to work due to expenses not having to be paid for. Young women were also housed in rooms of six people, in three beds total with a ten o’clock curfew. This provided for absolutely no privacy and showed how strict the business owners were. Although these girls were treated cruelly

During industrial revolution men’s physical stature and stamina were the driving force for constructions, machinery, farming and other day to day life. The number of automated tasks was very few which in turn resulted in manual labor needs for every work at industries. This left most of the women out of the industry where politics, innovation and production took place. Even before the industrial revolution society was most concerned about family and raising children and women were supposed to be child bearers. With no sufficient health care facilities, high infant mortality rate, pregnancy complications and no child care centers available, women were obliged to spend most of their life battling with lots of pregnancies and raising children

During Britain’s Industrial Revolution, a multitude of different jobs were opened to the working class of men, women, and children. While this era offered a wide variety of new opportunities for everyone, women were somewhat excluded in areas such as occupation availability and wage due to the cultural norms of the time period.

It was custom and cultural for woman to stay home and raise their family. However, during the industrial revolution women changed their lives through what they were able to do, which affected particularly women also girls that couldn't work past puberty, during the Industrial revolution men were forced to work longer hours. Not able to socialize as much. The creation on sites such as The Crystal place a building created mostly of glass and iron during 1850 was considered as a masterpiece, inviting millions of visitors from all over europe.

This occurred in the United Kingdom and the United States. This originally was focusing on promoting equal and proper rights for the women and the title of married women along with their children. The end of the nineteenth century is when activism was primarily focused on the status of political power, but mostly women’s suffrage. A major change in history was in 1918 when the Representative of the People Act 1918 was passed in the courts allowing women, above the age of thirty and they had to own their own home, the right to vote. In 1928, the Act was expanded to any women over the age of twenty-one.