Women's Roles During The Industrial Revolution

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

The Industrial Revolution was a period of industrial and urban growth in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. This period marked a transition from an agrarian based system, to one focused exclusively on economics and commodity production. Industrialization introduced innovative technology and the formation of factories would ultimately change how goods and materials were made. During the American Revolution, women were responsible for in-home production that aided the war effort, using their production as a means to contribute publically. As America transitioned from this period into the period of the Industrial Revolution, these widened roles became more restrictive, women were no longer producers, they were consumers, and it was not a common practice for women to work outside of the home. This generated an opportunity for women to challenge newly forming gender ideals in which women’s societal expectations were constructed according to the masculine majority and falling outside of these expectations was deemed inappropriate. The Industrial Revolution prompted an enlightenment period in which gender ideals suggested that men were intellectually superior to women and this perceived superiority helped to influence distinct public and private spheres of influence for both men and women and presented the idea that women had a specific set of virtues to uphold according to the “cult of true womanhood.”

Industrialization took place earlier in the western countries than the other parts of the world. Through the introduction of machines that made work easier in the industries, employment was no longer a man’s thing and women found an opportunity to work (Carlin 318). The revolution created a shortage in labor and textile factories absorbed young single ladies from the rural areas. The

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.

Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.

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

The earliest example of women working outside of the homes during the Revolutionary Era, were "mill girls." These women were employed primarily in the textile mill industry as factory workers. It was the first time that women were able to break into the outside world and earn wages for themselves. At that time, the mills created boarding houses that were created exclusively for women. This allowed women to work but kept them socially separated from the men as some men did not believe that their spheres should overlap while dually protecting women’s “virtue.”

Firstly, the Industrial Revolution affected women in the working and poor classes by allowing them to work in factories and mills. Before this time, women in the working class were primarily working unpaid jobs such as cooking and cleaning around the house for the family, but the industrial revolution gave women the chance to be paid and work outside of their homes (Frader, “Effects of the Industrial Revolution”, BCP). Most women obtained jobs in the textile industry. According to Dr. Christopher Wells, a professor of U.S cultural history at Macalester University, explained that ,“The town of Lowell, MA, for example, was incorporated in 1826 and soon hosted over 30 different mills.” (Wells, “Industrializing Women”, Teaching History). In the Lowell Mills, women expected to work at least thirteen hour days of constant and tiring labor in which women accounted for three-fourths of the workers in the mill. (Wells, “Industrializing Women”, Teaching History). Women factory workers typically made around $3.00 to $3.50 per week which was much greater than most women could earn in their hometowns (Dublin, “Women and

With the help of the Industrial Revolution, women made significant strives in changing the traditional economic roles given to females. Before the industrial revolution the only opportunity for a woman to be financially secure was for that woman to marry a financially secure husband. This created women’s dependence on men because if the man died they would have no source of income. The Industrial Revolution provided many women with jobs of their own helping women to become self-dependant. This self-dependence allowed for women to pursue interests not involving men, such as

One of the most impactful events on women’s roles in society was the Industrial Revolution; something not at all focused on changing the role of women in society. The Industrial Revolution started in British and Scottish textile industry. After the American Revolution there was a flood of British exports to the U.S. which led to Americans working to replicate the inventions that gave the British the upper hand in the U.S. market. From this effort came the first textile mill in the U.S; Samuel Slater, formerly an apprentice at an English textile mill, reconstructed an Arkwright water frame with sponsorship from William Almy and Moses Brown. From 1790 to 1840 they pioneered the machine production of cotton yarn. Other firms started to appear and the Rhode Island system of business practices was formed.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the role of women began to change. Slowly the role of women went from strict domestic work, to having their own say in their own reform groups. After the American Revolution, women began to have a say in what went on during their everyday lives or the lives of their children and husbands. A woman having her own say was something new for men to have to deal with, but they were willing to listen. Women do not get the right to vote nationally until the 1920s, but the start of their suffrage and political movement begins in the nineteenth century with the changing times of the Industrial Revolution and life after the American Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution brought about great changes in the sexual division of labor. Before the Industrial Revolution, men and women had set labor roles. As the Industrial Revolution came along, these labor roles began to expand into where women were being able to do the same jobs as men, although they did not receive as much as pay as their male counterparts doing the same job. For most married women, their job was inside the home, however, if they came from a poor family or a family where the man of the household was absent, these women would seek work in the factories. Most young unmarried women held full-time jobs in factories but only in specific positions. The similarity in these women though came in the fact that most of the jobs they

In the early nineteenth century, F.C. Lowell and Nathan Appleton lead to the creation of a mechanized and water powered system that could transform raw cotton to woven material. This system was names the ‘Lowell Mills’. In order to protect their agrarian ways, this textile industry was based of manual labors, which lead to the use women as their primary work force. Unlike in the past, women were able to work in an area away from home and, though significant, this small difference lead to big changes. Slowly but surely the textile industry increased individuality amongst women and although the Doctrine of Separate Spheres (a representation of the differences between men and women socially and economically)

Doing the usual traditional expectations for the women in the 19th century, not many women had the same opportunities or chances for education as men. Not many people wanted to see women receiving higher education than the men. Women had no political activity interaction. The women didn’t have the chance to vote, and in Great Britain under the British common law had acknowledge that the women were barely being considered people at all.