Women's Roles Before The Industrial Revolution

     Many of people today feel trapped inside their homes, just how the women of Pre-Industrial Europe felt. Working day in and day out inside the homes, just to keep the family together, and make a little money on the side, these women were an integral part of Pre-Industrial families. Not only were the women important to Pre-Industrial European families, but so were the households. Much of the money was made in the households, and this is where families either succeeded or failed. The household and women of Pre-Industrial Europe played an integral role in the economy of the families, and more importantly, the women of these households kept them running

During the 18th century, women were treated like slaves. They had little authority regarding anything. Women didn’t have the right to vote or the right to own property. Only a spinster or widow woman could own and manage property until they married. Women were owned by the husband just as he owned material possessions. Many women were trapped in loveless marriages and those without families were seen as outcasts. The husband was legally entitled to beat his wife for disobedience. Divorces were rarely granted and women usually ran away from bad marriages. As you read, I will talk about

The wartime jobs produced lasting careers and life-style changes for women. Some of the jobs they did were telephone operators, factory workers, seamstresses, and physicians. Most of the women that were hired for these jobs were young and unmarried because they had fewer obligations to attend. This meant, they could work long hours with little pay since they did not have a family to provide for. It was

The “Captains of Industry” (Carlyle, 1843) were men that furthered the Industrial Revolution and gain a large sum of money in the wake. Andrew Carnegie, known for his advancements of the steel industry, John Rockefeller, oil tycoon and Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, are just a few of the men that helped to shape the industrial era. As always, with great gain comes great losses and the people who worked for these men were not always treated properly. The mass amount of population willing to work and able to do the jobs created by these industries, drove down the amount of wages the owners were willing to pay. Skilled workers were often replaced by unskilled replacements if they became unhappy about the work load (Leonard 1979). The lack of government regulations on the businesses also contributed to the conditions the workers were forced to endure to make those small wages. Soon the labors joined forces to create unions and would strike to show this disapproval with the system the owners had created. Most of these strikes would end in violence due to the works demands not being met. Fortunately, these unions did create safer working environments, helped to raise wages and outlawed the child labor within the

During the late 1700s, production and manufacturing were centralized around people’s homes and farms. The majority of the work produced was done to provide for individual or community use; often hard labor, basic machines, and hand tools were used to carry out tasks. An era of powered machines and factories created the Industrial mark across the nation. Textile and iron industries developed the steam engine to help improve transportation and exchange to increase manufactured goods. While the impact improved the standard of living for a small majority, others a large majority remained poor and living in poverty. Urban cities that housed large manufacturing plants that provided jobs in often overcrowded cities and poor living conditions.

With half a million men away at war, leaving their day to day jobs, who replaced the the workers? The women did. Women replaced the men's jobs such as munitions factory workers, sewing bandages, and selling war bonds, shipyards and spies. This is good because before the war women were unimportant and were only aloud in the kitchen The only negative about the women working in the men’s jobs was they didn’t get paid as much as the men. The number of women in the workforce rose from 24% to 37%. This is close to 500,000 women to close to one million women. This says that in the workforce, women rose in a total of 500,000.

The Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain and America around the late 1700’s to 1900. This revolution improved the production of goods using new mechanisms and machines. Human labor was in high demand in order for the highest production rates. Factories employed low to middle-class people that were as young as three years old (Document 9). These workers were benefited with money, shelter, and clothes, but the working and living conditions were not satisfying. The average industrial worker experienced a variety of factors that can be classified as good or bad, including the positive effects of labor, like the shelter, money, and food they were given; and the negative effects of the factory,

During the 1940's wartime production required more factory workers. With the majority of males being enlisted into the military and the work force depleted, minorities and women found many opportunities during the war. "For most, involvement became an adventure, a way that every citizen could feel he or she was making an important contribution to the war effort"(Duis, 20). While most women were married, they worked to keep themselves busy while the males were off at war. "Prior to the war only about one fourth of women worked outside of the home" (Bard, 173). "By 1945, women made up 36% of the nation's total workforce" (Schultz). After the war, women were advised to leave work and continue their more traditional role of wife and mother. African Americans improved their economical standing by accepting war industry positions and through their migration from the south; some became professionals and skilled workers, yet still facing harsh discrimination. There was a high commitment of immigrant workers to the war effort that participated heavily in war bond and scrap metal collection drives. Like African Americans, these immigrants were also subjected to racial prejudice. But overall, "America enjoyed full employment and a higher standard of living"

The Industrial Revolution had many long-lasting effects on the English economy and society in the 1800s; the effects being both positive and negative. England’s industrialization resulted in urbanization, improved production, and better transportation, but also in poor living and working conditions for the working class, including many children. Industrialization in England made production of goods much more convenient, creating a greater demand for unskilled labor and a rapidly growing population. The population increase meant that more food was needed in order to feed everyone. In Document 5, Michael Mandelbaum explains that some rural labor was made “redundant,” causing many people to move to urban cities where they could find work in the new factories.

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

During the 1900’s, factories had the most available work, though there was some agriculture. Working

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.

At the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century, there were many changes to public ideology that affected the way that women perceived their roles in society. Prior to these changes, women had adopted the beliefs of separate “spheres” separating work into public life and their duties as mothers at home1. Women stayed at home to take care of the children and provide a warm, welcoming home for their husbands to take refuge from public life. Women became aware of their lack of legal and political power after the American Revolutionary War ended as they were denied the right to the same freedoms that granted the right to vote to the white, property-owning male population2. Despite granting women more liberty to run businesses, farms,

During the 1800’s, England experienced an Industrial Revolution. With steam engines, coal, and steal coming about, England boomed with new factories and commerce. Previous to the invention and use of this machinery, England was a rural country, with many people making their own trades. Soon enough, machines with higher efficiency and speed began to replace hand-crafted materials. Factories with huge machinery began to pop up along with new job opportunities. By the mid-1800’s, fifty percent of people lived in urbanized areas, compared to less than

     In mid-eighteenth-century England the industrial revolution was in full swing. However, workers lived near the level of physical subsistence, and their condition worsened in latter half of the eighteenth century. Monotony and repetition characterized factory work; the tyranny of the factory clock and the pace of the assembly line were beyond the control of all workers. The division of labor, praised by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations as the means to productivity growth and rising living standards, made work so routine that women and children could perform jobs just as easily as men. Business owners logically preferred such workers because they could be hired for less.