24. 1850-1950 Women’s Industrial Revolution
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The industrial revolution was an era of significant change for women. Advances in caesarean section and women's birth were made, which advanced medicine and treatment for child birth. Women also began to find new career options and leadership in the work force, giving them new chances to climb and even dismantle the social ladder. Women also had union protest's, labour strikes, and protests for voting rights, signifying the beginning of cultural and societal shifts in regards to women's place in society. As our industries and global sphere began to shift, so did the jobs, opportunities, and lives of women in during this time.
Read about US industrialization. |
Industrial Women, Wikimedia Commons
The Industrial Revolution began in England because of the natural resources available and the shift toward capitalist endeavors. It resulted in so many changes to society that sometimes it’s hard to keep track, but it includes the basics: the type of work people did, where they lived, and what their daily lives revolved around. These foundational changes also lead to systemic changes like who held power and how and where. Women of the laboring class went from domestic servants, weavers, and shopkeepers to being factory workers. Their increasing involvement in life outside the domestic world and the horrible conditions in the factories led to their greater political involvement and eventually demands for political rights.
Before Industrialization: The Industrial Revolution transitioned English, then European, and later many other societies from small industries full of craftsmen and women, to the mass production of goods in factories using steam and water power.
In the pre-industrial world, women had immense control of their day-to-day lives. As their work shifted to the factory, women worked about the same hours but in back breaking and repetitive labor– and when they returned home, they were still responsible for their domestic duties. Caring for children in the pre-industrial world was possible because the children were always nearby, but in the Industrial world, children were also working.
Midwives and Doctors: Midwives were one of the accepted ways that women have always worked outside the home around the world, and this job represented a huge shift in the labor force. Increasingly, governments worked to certify and professionalize industries– medicine among them. Midwifery was generally a safe option in birth for women. High maternal death rates led to scholars examining the field scientifically, and men entered the field as “trained” obstetricians. Many of the men drawn to this field had personally lost loved ones to birth. In the 1500s “The Rosengarten” became the first obstetrical textbook and was written by a male apothecary. It provided instructions, probably taken from common (female) midwife practices, on how to rotate the baby with pressure on the abdomen to get it into the proper position. It also introduced new methods and tools to extract the baby. Women at the time were largely illiterate, so how many of the midwives attending women at birth were familiar with the content of the text is hard to say, but the result of this and another text was tension between the midwives who had made paying careers in one of the fields available to them and male doctors stealing those careers.
Before Industrialization: The Industrial Revolution transitioned English, then European, and later many other societies from small industries full of craftsmen and women, to the mass production of goods in factories using steam and water power.
In the pre-industrial world, women had immense control of their day-to-day lives. As their work shifted to the factory, women worked about the same hours but in back breaking and repetitive labor– and when they returned home, they were still responsible for their domestic duties. Caring for children in the pre-industrial world was possible because the children were always nearby, but in the Industrial world, children were also working.
Midwives and Doctors: Midwives were one of the accepted ways that women have always worked outside the home around the world, and this job represented a huge shift in the labor force. Increasingly, governments worked to certify and professionalize industries– medicine among them. Midwifery was generally a safe option in birth for women. High maternal death rates led to scholars examining the field scientifically, and men entered the field as “trained” obstetricians. Many of the men drawn to this field had personally lost loved ones to birth. In the 1500s “The Rosengarten” became the first obstetrical textbook and was written by a male apothecary. It provided instructions, probably taken from common (female) midwife practices, on how to rotate the baby with pressure on the abdomen to get it into the proper position. It also introduced new methods and tools to extract the baby. Women at the time were largely illiterate, so how many of the midwives attending women at birth were familiar with the content of the text is hard to say, but the result of this and another text was tension between the midwives who had made paying careers in one of the fields available to them and male doctors stealing those careers.
Midwifery, Public Domain
This “professionalization” of midwifery really damaged female patients. Their physicians had never been through what they were going though, and Victorian gendered expectations respected women’s modesty and therefore sometimes the doctors wouldn’t even look! Women died at higher rates under these male doctors, but still the doctors drove women out of their jobs.
In the battle between midwives and male doctors, it’s wrong to assume midwives weren’t using medical instruments for interventions. Sarah Stone and Margaret Stephen, both female midwives in the late 1700s, used them. But the male doctors won the battle for the monopoly on birth. In America by the 1800s, especially among the wealthy and urban, doctors became the preference. No longer did women give birth with their female neighbors there for support and advice, but they rather gave birth alone with just their mother and a male doctor in attendance. In Philadelphia over a ten-year period, the number of midwives fell from 21 to 6. As men were not allowed to look at a naked woman— even during childbirth, male medical students weren’t allowed to watch births, so instead learned from textbooks! It’s all good, though.
Throughout history, caesarian sections had been performed. The surgery was reserved for when it was evident the mother was dying or already dead and there was a chance to save the baby. Having a caesarian section was basically a death sentence. In 1814, a report from London announced that only 20-22 cesarean sections had been attempted in the empire and only nine had succeeded in saving the babies, while just two had succeeded in saving the mother. The first undisputed and well-documented caesarian section in Ireland took place in 1738 and saved both mother and baby; it was performed by a female midwife, Mary Donally. She was called to help Alice O’Neal, the thirty-year-old wife of an Irish farmer who had been in labor for twelve days. Mary cut Alice’s stomach with a razor while an assistant walked a mile to get silk to stitch the mother up. Even though the surgery worked, the medical community in Europe would debate the validity of the procedure and few were willing to do it, even into the 1900s. In Britain, there was much more support for killing the baby to save the mother, and so much of the debate was about which life was more valuable (just like the pro-life vs pro-choice debate today).
In the battle between midwives and male doctors, it’s wrong to assume midwives weren’t using medical instruments for interventions. Sarah Stone and Margaret Stephen, both female midwives in the late 1700s, used them. But the male doctors won the battle for the monopoly on birth. In America by the 1800s, especially among the wealthy and urban, doctors became the preference. No longer did women give birth with their female neighbors there for support and advice, but they rather gave birth alone with just their mother and a male doctor in attendance. In Philadelphia over a ten-year period, the number of midwives fell from 21 to 6. As men were not allowed to look at a naked woman— even during childbirth, male medical students weren’t allowed to watch births, so instead learned from textbooks! It’s all good, though.
Throughout history, caesarian sections had been performed. The surgery was reserved for when it was evident the mother was dying or already dead and there was a chance to save the baby. Having a caesarian section was basically a death sentence. In 1814, a report from London announced that only 20-22 cesarean sections had been attempted in the empire and only nine had succeeded in saving the babies, while just two had succeeded in saving the mother. The first undisputed and well-documented caesarian section in Ireland took place in 1738 and saved both mother and baby; it was performed by a female midwife, Mary Donally. She was called to help Alice O’Neal, the thirty-year-old wife of an Irish farmer who had been in labor for twelve days. Mary cut Alice’s stomach with a razor while an assistant walked a mile to get silk to stitch the mother up. Even though the surgery worked, the medical community in Europe would debate the validity of the procedure and few were willing to do it, even into the 1900s. In Britain, there was much more support for killing the baby to save the mother, and so much of the debate was about which life was more valuable (just like the pro-life vs pro-choice debate today).
Dr. James Berry, Wikimedia Commons
Life without the C-section meant many women continued to die, regardless of their status and access to the best medical care. Most notably, in 1817, Princess Charlotte, George IV's only child died in childbirth at the young age of 21. The baby was two weeks late and labour lasted for 50 hours. The nine-pound baby was stillborn. Doctors removed the placenta with difficulty, and six hours later Charlotte died. The obstetrician, Sir Richard Croft, was harassed mercilessly by the masses. He shot himself a few days later. Tragic all around. Interestingly, King George was left without an heir, and the throne passed first to his brother and then to his niece, who became Queen Victoria.
An interesting and notable case of successful cesarean section occurred in South Africa in 1826, by Dr. James Barry, someone with unclear gender identity. Barry was identified as female at birth and raised as a girl by the name of Margaret Ann Bulkley. When his uncle died, he assumed the name James in his stead and used the new identity as an opportunity for self-betterment, enrolling in medical school in Edenborough and seems to have identified as male for the rest of his life. Barry had been raped as a youth and the resulting child was raised by his mother, but the stretch marks from pregnancy remained on him his entire life. Barry had a highly successful and controversial medical career, serving as a physician all over the world and in the Crimean War. While in South Africa, he performed a caesarian section that saved both the mother and child. The grateful mother named her new baby James in his honor. When Barry died years later, it was discovered that he was female or perhaps intersex. How he would have liked to be remembered is sadly unknown.
In hospitals, before germs were understood and sterilization common, doctors would go from surgery to surgery carrying infections to women in labor. By the 1800s, maternal death rate might reach between two and eight per 100 deliveries, around 10 times the rate outside the hospital. In New York, in 1840, 80 percent of women who gave birth in a hospital died.
The discovery of anesthesia like chloroform was not far behind, but like the C-section, many were reluctant to use it in labor. Queen Victoria consented to its use during the birth of her eighth child and it quickly became widely accepted in obstetric practice.
Industrial Revolution: Changes were not just happening in midwifery. All over the world, the transition from an agricultural and cottage based society to an industrial one was painful, full of failures, insecurities, and tension.
The nature of work done by women and men often reveals the attitudes, beliefs, and values that a society holds about gender differences. In most of Europe and East Asia, it was believed that women, as opposed to men, were inherently docile, were used to using certain types of small muscles, and had a tolerance for monotony and detail. With these assumptions, women more than men were believed to be ideal assembly-line workers. Because of their supposed compliance, they would be willing to take lower wages and could handle repetitive assembly line work, doing tasks that were already defined as
womens’ work.
Lower class women, who, out of necessity, worked for a wage, were seen as “unsexing” themselves and entering into the cutthroat “man’s world.” This cult-like view of domestic labor dominated societies– yet again pitting women against each other.
But practically, women were seen as desirable employees. Teenage girls, who had already learned manual dexterity at home, were thought to have the “special skills,” which is code for they were manipulatable. Through the years employers used these supposed gender-based characteristics to direct women toward grueling, low paying jobs and away from work that required training or leadership. Rarely did anyone question that the ability to run large, complex machinery was anything but a “man’s job.” Hulk smash. For example, the more an expensive spinning mule, introduced later, became a male-operated machine, the male mule spinners’ union opposed the employment of women and children.
An interesting and notable case of successful cesarean section occurred in South Africa in 1826, by Dr. James Barry, someone with unclear gender identity. Barry was identified as female at birth and raised as a girl by the name of Margaret Ann Bulkley. When his uncle died, he assumed the name James in his stead and used the new identity as an opportunity for self-betterment, enrolling in medical school in Edenborough and seems to have identified as male for the rest of his life. Barry had been raped as a youth and the resulting child was raised by his mother, but the stretch marks from pregnancy remained on him his entire life. Barry had a highly successful and controversial medical career, serving as a physician all over the world and in the Crimean War. While in South Africa, he performed a caesarian section that saved both the mother and child. The grateful mother named her new baby James in his honor. When Barry died years later, it was discovered that he was female or perhaps intersex. How he would have liked to be remembered is sadly unknown.
In hospitals, before germs were understood and sterilization common, doctors would go from surgery to surgery carrying infections to women in labor. By the 1800s, maternal death rate might reach between two and eight per 100 deliveries, around 10 times the rate outside the hospital. In New York, in 1840, 80 percent of women who gave birth in a hospital died.
The discovery of anesthesia like chloroform was not far behind, but like the C-section, many were reluctant to use it in labor. Queen Victoria consented to its use during the birth of her eighth child and it quickly became widely accepted in obstetric practice.
Industrial Revolution: Changes were not just happening in midwifery. All over the world, the transition from an agricultural and cottage based society to an industrial one was painful, full of failures, insecurities, and tension.
The nature of work done by women and men often reveals the attitudes, beliefs, and values that a society holds about gender differences. In most of Europe and East Asia, it was believed that women, as opposed to men, were inherently docile, were used to using certain types of small muscles, and had a tolerance for monotony and detail. With these assumptions, women more than men were believed to be ideal assembly-line workers. Because of their supposed compliance, they would be willing to take lower wages and could handle repetitive assembly line work, doing tasks that were already defined as
womens’ work.
Lower class women, who, out of necessity, worked for a wage, were seen as “unsexing” themselves and entering into the cutthroat “man’s world.” This cult-like view of domestic labor dominated societies– yet again pitting women against each other.
But practically, women were seen as desirable employees. Teenage girls, who had already learned manual dexterity at home, were thought to have the “special skills,” which is code for they were manipulatable. Through the years employers used these supposed gender-based characteristics to direct women toward grueling, low paying jobs and away from work that required training or leadership. Rarely did anyone question that the ability to run large, complex machinery was anything but a “man’s job.” Hulk smash. For example, the more an expensive spinning mule, introduced later, became a male-operated machine, the male mule spinners’ union opposed the employment of women and children.
European Textile Workers, Public Domain
This pattern of gendered job segregation was notably true in Asia where deeply rooted gender norms and values played a large role in influencing labor patterns. At work, women were praised for “knowing their place,” for being more flexible than men, and for being subordinate to men and their masters.Women’s earnings were always lower in jobs they held equally with men, and they were unlikely to have access to supervisory positions or promotional ladders. At first, Asian women had no mutual aid societies and were largely excluded from collective action, such as strikes, work slowdown or stoppages. Accustomed to a patriarchal world in which male authority ruled, and with few alternatives for work, working class women took whatever pay and conditions offered them in order to feed themselves and their family.
Women in the factories and mines of Europe and Asia during the formative years of industrialization were subjected to similar forms of exploitation and control. Everywhere the work tended to be dehumanizing and monotonous. Fourteen to sixteen hour shifts controlled by the clock, under the watchful eye of sometimes harsh male supervisors, were normal. The women worked six days a week. Sexual harassment was fairly common. The workplace environment spurred epidemic illnesses, such as cholera, TB, and dysentery. Safety measures were weak, and accidents were frequently reported, as were physical deformities caused by hard, repetitive work, and poisoning caused by the use of unsafe chemicals. When factory work removed young women from their parental households, factory owners often established dormitories for the workers and acted as substitute fathers. This system restricted women’s leisure-time activities and socializing habits, while ensuring that their wages would be sent home. Married women, on the other hand, were encouraged to work at home if possible.
Women in the factories and mines of Europe and Asia during the formative years of industrialization were subjected to similar forms of exploitation and control. Everywhere the work tended to be dehumanizing and monotonous. Fourteen to sixteen hour shifts controlled by the clock, under the watchful eye of sometimes harsh male supervisors, were normal. The women worked six days a week. Sexual harassment was fairly common. The workplace environment spurred epidemic illnesses, such as cholera, TB, and dysentery. Safety measures were weak, and accidents were frequently reported, as were physical deformities caused by hard, repetitive work, and poisoning caused by the use of unsafe chemicals. When factory work removed young women from their parental households, factory owners often established dormitories for the workers and acted as substitute fathers. This system restricted women’s leisure-time activities and socializing habits, while ensuring that their wages would be sent home. Married women, on the other hand, were encouraged to work at home if possible.
Japanese Textile Workers, Wikimedia Commons
Around the world, working class women moved into cities and took up jobs, entering into the paid workforce in greater numbers than ever before. This changed the economic value of the unpaid domestic work women had been doing for milenia. The cultural effect of women earning a wage was that their domestic labor lost its value. The degradation of domestic work undermined its importance. Men of the working class could not earn enough to also pay for domestic labor, and thus families relied on the integral and unpaid labor of women.
Women played a crucial role in supplying the labor which underpinned early industrialization efforts. As household industries shifted into factories or centralized workshops, women in great numbers were sought to work in the mills. Most common was work in the textile mills; it has been said that the histories of industrial revolutions everywhere began with the work of women textile workers. Recognizing this, one Japanese worker’s song says, “Factory girls are treasure chests for the company.”
It was no coincidence that women, and children, made up much of the workforce of the early factories. Exploitation alert!
To jump start an industry, an owner needed cheap labor. Women in the 1800s and 1900s had few alternatives for work, and thus took whatever pay and conditions were offered in order to feed themselves and their families. Women also were sought as desirable employees because of age-old beliefs that they, more than men, were nimble-fingered, dexterous, careful, meticulous and quick. Accustomed to a patriarchal world in which male authority ruled, employers also counted on them to be compliant, docile workers. For example, the tradition which valued absolute allegiance to authority to a master was used to reinforce obedience at work among girls from Samurai Japanese families.
Families played an important role in sending daughters off to factories. In Europe girls’ incomes were important to their families, as well as to the girls’ dowries. Japan’s first workers in government mills were women from poor farm families who as “excess” daughters could be sent out. A daughter’s work away from home was seen as part of the patriotic effort to industrialize the nation as well as a requirement of their filial duty to contribute to the well-being of their parents. In China, a woman’s farm work was seen as less essential to the family economy than was a mans. Impoverished families willingly signed contracts committing their daughters to long terms as indentured workers in the mills in return for advance cash loans.
In all cases, large factories offered ways to protect their female workforce. Through promises to supervise young females and their morals, and in some cases provide safe, controlled housing in company dorms, factories became like second parents. Familial duties in a sense were transferred from the home to the patriarchal factory. Hmmm, what exactly does one get a factory for a father’s day gift?
Women played a crucial role in supplying the labor which underpinned early industrialization efforts. As household industries shifted into factories or centralized workshops, women in great numbers were sought to work in the mills. Most common was work in the textile mills; it has been said that the histories of industrial revolutions everywhere began with the work of women textile workers. Recognizing this, one Japanese worker’s song says, “Factory girls are treasure chests for the company.”
It was no coincidence that women, and children, made up much of the workforce of the early factories. Exploitation alert!
To jump start an industry, an owner needed cheap labor. Women in the 1800s and 1900s had few alternatives for work, and thus took whatever pay and conditions were offered in order to feed themselves and their families. Women also were sought as desirable employees because of age-old beliefs that they, more than men, were nimble-fingered, dexterous, careful, meticulous and quick. Accustomed to a patriarchal world in which male authority ruled, employers also counted on them to be compliant, docile workers. For example, the tradition which valued absolute allegiance to authority to a master was used to reinforce obedience at work among girls from Samurai Japanese families.
Families played an important role in sending daughters off to factories. In Europe girls’ incomes were important to their families, as well as to the girls’ dowries. Japan’s first workers in government mills were women from poor farm families who as “excess” daughters could be sent out. A daughter’s work away from home was seen as part of the patriotic effort to industrialize the nation as well as a requirement of their filial duty to contribute to the well-being of their parents. In China, a woman’s farm work was seen as less essential to the family economy than was a mans. Impoverished families willingly signed contracts committing their daughters to long terms as indentured workers in the mills in return for advance cash loans.
In all cases, large factories offered ways to protect their female workforce. Through promises to supervise young females and their morals, and in some cases provide safe, controlled housing in company dorms, factories became like second parents. Familial duties in a sense were transferred from the home to the patriarchal factory. Hmmm, what exactly does one get a factory for a father’s day gift?
Spinning Jenny, Wikimedia Commons
The large demand for female labor was tempting for many women. In Europe, given the choice between taxing farm work or demeaning domestic service, many women chose factory work for the money and independence it seemed to offer. In Japan recruiters went into the countryside with tempting offers of good wages, pleasant working conditions, and tasty food.
Within the workplace, men and women’s work was different, and hardly ever equal. Women remained in lower-paid and lesser-authority positions throughout their careers, even in the industries, such as textile, where they dominated. Guess those dainty, nimble fingers just couldn’t hold as much cash as the manly ones could.
Spinning Jenny
The industrial revolution was spawned on by a legal system that encouraged invention and enforced patents. Thousands of inventions, big and small transformed the technologies used and thus made the economy and production more efficient. Women were likely behind many of these inventions, but customs credited the male head of house.
An important invention for women was the Spinning Jenny, which was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves. This complex device cut down the time and effort needed to produce cloth and transformed the textile industry. Women no longer sat at spinning wheels; they stood, 12-14 hours a day at the Jenny, working eight spools at once! The work was excruciating. Hannah Goode described her day to a government official, stating, "I work at Mr. Wilson's mill. I think the youngest child is about 7. I daresay there are 20 under 9 years. It is about half past five by our clock at home when we go in....We come out at seven by the mill. We never stop to take our meals, except at dinner. William Crookes is overlooker in our room. He is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right....I have sometimes seen the little children drop asleep or so, but not lately. If they are catched asleep they get the strap. They are always very tired at night....I can read a little; I can't write. I used to go to school before I went to the mill; I have since I am sixteen."
A mother, Mrs. Smith, had three children working at the same mill. She said, "We don't complain. If they go to drop the hours, I don't know what poor people will do. We have hard work to live as it is. ...My husband is of the same mind about it...last summer my husband was 6 weeks ill; we pledged almost all our things to live; the things are not all out of pawn yet… We complain of nothing but short wages...My children have been in the mill three years. I have no complaint to make of their being beaten...I would rather they were beaten than fined."
Despite the mother’s hearty perspective, society was concerned about the way women in these factories were treated. One popular balad sang out: “Laboriously toiling, both night, noon, and morning/ For a wretched subsistence, now mark what I say. She's quite unprotected, forlorn, and dejected/ For sixpence, or eightpence, or tenpence a day. Come forward you nobles, and grant them assistance/ Give them employ, and a fair price them pay/ And then you will find, the poor hard working seamstress/ From honour and virtue will not go astray.”
Within the workplace, men and women’s work was different, and hardly ever equal. Women remained in lower-paid and lesser-authority positions throughout their careers, even in the industries, such as textile, where they dominated. Guess those dainty, nimble fingers just couldn’t hold as much cash as the manly ones could.
Spinning Jenny
The industrial revolution was spawned on by a legal system that encouraged invention and enforced patents. Thousands of inventions, big and small transformed the technologies used and thus made the economy and production more efficient. Women were likely behind many of these inventions, but customs credited the male head of house.
An important invention for women was the Spinning Jenny, which was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves. This complex device cut down the time and effort needed to produce cloth and transformed the textile industry. Women no longer sat at spinning wheels; they stood, 12-14 hours a day at the Jenny, working eight spools at once! The work was excruciating. Hannah Goode described her day to a government official, stating, "I work at Mr. Wilson's mill. I think the youngest child is about 7. I daresay there are 20 under 9 years. It is about half past five by our clock at home when we go in....We come out at seven by the mill. We never stop to take our meals, except at dinner. William Crookes is overlooker in our room. He is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right....I have sometimes seen the little children drop asleep or so, but not lately. If they are catched asleep they get the strap. They are always very tired at night....I can read a little; I can't write. I used to go to school before I went to the mill; I have since I am sixteen."
A mother, Mrs. Smith, had three children working at the same mill. She said, "We don't complain. If they go to drop the hours, I don't know what poor people will do. We have hard work to live as it is. ...My husband is of the same mind about it...last summer my husband was 6 weeks ill; we pledged almost all our things to live; the things are not all out of pawn yet… We complain of nothing but short wages...My children have been in the mill three years. I have no complaint to make of their being beaten...I would rather they were beaten than fined."
Despite the mother’s hearty perspective, society was concerned about the way women in these factories were treated. One popular balad sang out: “Laboriously toiling, both night, noon, and morning/ For a wretched subsistence, now mark what I say. She's quite unprotected, forlorn, and dejected/ For sixpence, or eightpence, or tenpence a day. Come forward you nobles, and grant them assistance/ Give them employ, and a fair price them pay/ And then you will find, the poor hard working seamstress/ From honour and virtue will not go astray.”
Women in the Coal Mines, Wikimedia Commons
Coal Mines: For women of the working class, the best occupation one could get was in service. Following that in a factory, and the worst was in a mine. A six year old girl described her grueling work, "I have been down six weeks and make 10 to 14 rakes a day; I carry a full 56 lbs. of coal in a wooden bucket. I work with sister Jesse and mother. It is dark the time we go."
Maria Gooder’s testimony shows how despite her constant working, she still had very little. "I hurry for a man with my sister Anne who is going 18. He is good to us. I don't like being in the pit. I am tired and afraid. I go at 4:30 after having porridge for breakfast. I start hurrying at 5. We have dinner at noon. We have dry bread and nothing else. There is water in the pit but we don't sup it."
Mary Enock worked in the mines with her sister and was just eleven years old. She said, “We are door-keepers in the four foot level. We leave the house before six each morning and are in the level until seven o’clock and sometimes later. We get 2p a day and our light costs us 2 ½ p. a week. Rachel was in a day school and she can read a little. She was run over by a tram a while ago and was home ill a long time, but she has got over it.”
Maria Gooder’s testimony shows how despite her constant working, she still had very little. "I hurry for a man with my sister Anne who is going 18. He is good to us. I don't like being in the pit. I am tired and afraid. I go at 4:30 after having porridge for breakfast. I start hurrying at 5. We have dinner at noon. We have dry bread and nothing else. There is water in the pit but we don't sup it."
Mary Enock worked in the mines with her sister and was just eleven years old. She said, “We are door-keepers in the four foot level. We leave the house before six each morning and are in the level until seven o’clock and sometimes later. We get 2p a day and our light costs us 2 ½ p. a week. Rachel was in a day school and she can read a little. She was run over by a tram a while ago and was home ill a long time, but she has got over it.”
Wikimedia Commons
Middle and Upper Classes: Industrialization brought the decline of the British aristocracy and the rise of the middle class. Women of the middle classes represented the ideal woman, in contrast to her lower class counterpart. A man who could provide enough for a wife to be spared working outside the home was a sign of one’s class. Thus working men of this time began to agitate and unionize to protect their wages in order to provide for their wives– at the expense of working women. Middle class and upper class women were mothers, homemakers, moral guideposts, and emotional havens. They were expected to strive for perfection in every aspect of their lives, and in return, women of this class were to be protected from the harsh realities of the capitalist world beyond the domestic sphere. That’s right, ladies: look fine and stay in line to avoid the mines. Thus the gendered archetypes of the industrious man and the domesticated woman emerged as the new definition of elite and civilized society.
Over time, this idealized woman came to be believed as biological and natural– even though historical records tell us otherwise. In Japan and China there was contradictory government rhetoric calling for more women to join factory work but also pressure for women to remain strictly in the home. Talk about mixed messages.
Across the globe, Europeans had long held that manliness required the silencing of women. As the expanding empires interacted with more cultures that didn’t have such strict gender divisions, it reinforced racist attitudes about those people.
Women were encouraged to maintain “fine” homes that included the latest decor, clothes, and were neat and clean. Women of this time often had large families and thus the pressure on her to meet all of these social demands necessitated domestic servants. Demand for servants rapidly increased and became one of the most common jobs for English women in the 1800s. Unmarried women who previously labored in family businesses and on farms shifted to working as domestic servants.
Servants provided middle and upper class women with more leisure time. Women became avid readers (and writers) which made them one of the most educated groups of women in history. These brainy ladies threw themselves into the socially acceptable charitable work and social reforms addressing the ills of industrialization– ironic. Thus, while we have a plethora of middle class female voices from this period, the everyday experience of working class women was largely ignored and overlooked.
Upper class women became advocates for poor women and children, speakers against alcoholism (known as Temperance Reformers), abolitionists (against slavery), worked to end child labor, and more. The idealized version of womanhood was ever present. Some of these elite women, out of touch with the realities of the poor, claimed paid labor was unsuitable for women, as it was detrimental to her domestic duties. But how were these women supposed to feed their families?
This work forced upper class women to become political in ways yet seen by mass groups of women. They advocated for the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which gave women the right to control their finances even within marriage. This also resulted in sweeping new laws that aimed to protect women, but ultimately created massive hurdles for working women. They claimed women’s bodies were too weak and delicate for some types of work and blocked women from competing with men in certain industries.
Some middle and upper class women became teachers (until they were married) in order to provide the education needed in an industrialized society. Girls received education related toward domestic skills for their futures as housewives and domestic servants. In Britain, women were barred from colleges and universities until the 1870s. Some European women did attend college, sat for exams, but the schools would not issue them degrees on account of their sex.
Over time, this idealized woman came to be believed as biological and natural– even though historical records tell us otherwise. In Japan and China there was contradictory government rhetoric calling for more women to join factory work but also pressure for women to remain strictly in the home. Talk about mixed messages.
Across the globe, Europeans had long held that manliness required the silencing of women. As the expanding empires interacted with more cultures that didn’t have such strict gender divisions, it reinforced racist attitudes about those people.
Women were encouraged to maintain “fine” homes that included the latest decor, clothes, and were neat and clean. Women of this time often had large families and thus the pressure on her to meet all of these social demands necessitated domestic servants. Demand for servants rapidly increased and became one of the most common jobs for English women in the 1800s. Unmarried women who previously labored in family businesses and on farms shifted to working as domestic servants.
Servants provided middle and upper class women with more leisure time. Women became avid readers (and writers) which made them one of the most educated groups of women in history. These brainy ladies threw themselves into the socially acceptable charitable work and social reforms addressing the ills of industrialization– ironic. Thus, while we have a plethora of middle class female voices from this period, the everyday experience of working class women was largely ignored and overlooked.
Upper class women became advocates for poor women and children, speakers against alcoholism (known as Temperance Reformers), abolitionists (against slavery), worked to end child labor, and more. The idealized version of womanhood was ever present. Some of these elite women, out of touch with the realities of the poor, claimed paid labor was unsuitable for women, as it was detrimental to her domestic duties. But how were these women supposed to feed their families?
This work forced upper class women to become political in ways yet seen by mass groups of women. They advocated for the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which gave women the right to control their finances even within marriage. This also resulted in sweeping new laws that aimed to protect women, but ultimately created massive hurdles for working women. They claimed women’s bodies were too weak and delicate for some types of work and blocked women from competing with men in certain industries.
Some middle and upper class women became teachers (until they were married) in order to provide the education needed in an industrialized society. Girls received education related toward domestic skills for their futures as housewives and domestic servants. In Britain, women were barred from colleges and universities until the 1870s. Some European women did attend college, sat for exams, but the schools would not issue them degrees on account of their sex.
Japanese Industrial Workers, Public Domain
Labor Unions and Protest: Eventually the realities of industry were investigated by a government commission in Britain. The documents revealed that women on average earned one-third to two-thirds of male salaries. It was a contrived pay scale to protect the male provider and head of house, just one of many ways industrial society was designed to protect men and their wealth. Trade Unions, for example, often barred women from entering and denied them training in advanced skills.
But women will only take so much before they stand up and demand change. Some women became politically active and formed unions. The Women’s Trade Union League formed in Britain in 1874, resulting in a massive influx of women’s union activity.
Similar patterns were seen in Japan when women organized massive strikes in the 1880s over low wages and contracts that forced them to live in housing away from home. There, women showed agency by running away from their jobs to be with their families.
There were differences in women’s behaviors based on marital status. Married women tended to participate less in militant activities. These women were responsible for their jobs as well as their unpaid domestic work. Male unions resisted female labor and unionization, as it posed a real threat to male jobs and wage security. Unions enforced a gender hierarchy that promoted the patriarchy, describing women as cheap, unskilled labor. Women’s involvement in labor unions resulted in incremental change. Pay, working conditions, and living conditions improved wherever unions took root– but it wasn’t fast enough.
But women will only take so much before they stand up and demand change. Some women became politically active and formed unions. The Women’s Trade Union League formed in Britain in 1874, resulting in a massive influx of women’s union activity.
Similar patterns were seen in Japan when women organized massive strikes in the 1880s over low wages and contracts that forced them to live in housing away from home. There, women showed agency by running away from their jobs to be with their families.
There were differences in women’s behaviors based on marital status. Married women tended to participate less in militant activities. These women were responsible for their jobs as well as their unpaid domestic work. Male unions resisted female labor and unionization, as it posed a real threat to male jobs and wage security. Unions enforced a gender hierarchy that promoted the patriarchy, describing women as cheap, unskilled labor. Women’s involvement in labor unions resulted in incremental change. Pay, working conditions, and living conditions improved wherever unions took root– but it wasn’t fast enough.
Muriel Matters, Wikimedia Commons
Voting Rights: Industrialization took women and girls from farms, cottage industries, and domestic work and dragged them into the world dominated by men. Unionization led to slow change– and many women were fed up. Industrial labor and the failure of the unions and law to protect women from exploitive pay, sexual harassment, and dangerous working conditions, hurled many women into political advocacy, where they eventually demanded the right to vote on matters of politics and law. They wanted the ballot, just like men.
New Zealand gave women the right to vote, known as enfranchisement, in 1893, making it the first nation to allow women to vote in national elections! Australia followed, when they became a federal state in 1901, Australian suffragists were able to protect rights they had as smaller states. Muriel Matters and Vida Goldstein, were two of the many women who fought for women’s political recognition in Australia. Australian women were both admired and feared around the world.
Vida Goldstein became the first Australian to visit a present at the White House. President Theodore Roosevelt found her fascinating as she had more political rights than any US woman. He said, “I’ve got my eye on you down in Australia.”
Australia continues to lead the world in female leadership. Mostly because they focused their efforts on reforming the structures and systems that made it difficult for women to participate in politics and leadership. Their model, and countless academic studies show that where women lead there are enormous benefits, not only for women and girls, but all of society.
Muriel Matters didn’t stop with Australia. Once suffrage was secure there, she headed to the United Kingdom, where suffrage had been a hot topic since the 1860s. In 1902, 37,000 women and girls who labored in the textile mills of Northern England petitioned Parliament for the right to vote– but nothing changed.
By 1905, British women were fed up with inaction on suffrage. It was then the mother daughter trio of Emmeline, Christabel, and Sylvia Pankhurst championed the militant wing of the English suffragette movement, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), adopting the motto, “Deeds not Words.”
In 1907, 75 WSPU suffragettes were arrested when they attempted to storm the Houses of Parliament— it was war. They picketted, smashed mainstreet store fronts, bombed parlamentarian mailboxes, and performed a whole variety of stunts to get suffrage on the front page of the newspaper. Their international organization promoted militancy and pageantry as a means to an end.
Matters, the Australian, went down in history AGAIN, when in 1908 earned the title of the first woman to speak in the British House of Commons in London because she chained herself to the grill that barred women’s view of parliament and shouted demands for women’s rights.
Security cut her off the grill and dragged her out by force. You bet she was still hollering her demands. Of course not all women liked these tactics. Some left the Pankhersts for the more moderate Women’s Freedom League (WFL), while other women formed the UK’s first anti-suffrage league. But the suffragists kept fighting. In 1909, Marion Wallace Dunlop went on hunger strike while in prison and others soon followed her. Instead of releasing the women from prison, the jailers force fed them (a form of torture) to keep them alive. Women began refusing to pay taxes until they could vote for the people who taxed them. They organized into the Women's Tax Resistance League (WTRL) with the slogan “No vote, no tax.”
New Zealand gave women the right to vote, known as enfranchisement, in 1893, making it the first nation to allow women to vote in national elections! Australia followed, when they became a federal state in 1901, Australian suffragists were able to protect rights they had as smaller states. Muriel Matters and Vida Goldstein, were two of the many women who fought for women’s political recognition in Australia. Australian women were both admired and feared around the world.
Vida Goldstein became the first Australian to visit a present at the White House. President Theodore Roosevelt found her fascinating as she had more political rights than any US woman. He said, “I’ve got my eye on you down in Australia.”
Australia continues to lead the world in female leadership. Mostly because they focused their efforts on reforming the structures and systems that made it difficult for women to participate in politics and leadership. Their model, and countless academic studies show that where women lead there are enormous benefits, not only for women and girls, but all of society.
Muriel Matters didn’t stop with Australia. Once suffrage was secure there, she headed to the United Kingdom, where suffrage had been a hot topic since the 1860s. In 1902, 37,000 women and girls who labored in the textile mills of Northern England petitioned Parliament for the right to vote– but nothing changed.
By 1905, British women were fed up with inaction on suffrage. It was then the mother daughter trio of Emmeline, Christabel, and Sylvia Pankhurst championed the militant wing of the English suffragette movement, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), adopting the motto, “Deeds not Words.”
In 1907, 75 WSPU suffragettes were arrested when they attempted to storm the Houses of Parliament— it was war. They picketted, smashed mainstreet store fronts, bombed parlamentarian mailboxes, and performed a whole variety of stunts to get suffrage on the front page of the newspaper. Their international organization promoted militancy and pageantry as a means to an end.
Matters, the Australian, went down in history AGAIN, when in 1908 earned the title of the first woman to speak in the British House of Commons in London because she chained herself to the grill that barred women’s view of parliament and shouted demands for women’s rights.
Security cut her off the grill and dragged her out by force. You bet she was still hollering her demands. Of course not all women liked these tactics. Some left the Pankhersts for the more moderate Women’s Freedom League (WFL), while other women formed the UK’s first anti-suffrage league. But the suffragists kept fighting. In 1909, Marion Wallace Dunlop went on hunger strike while in prison and others soon followed her. Instead of releasing the women from prison, the jailers force fed them (a form of torture) to keep them alive. Women began refusing to pay taxes until they could vote for the people who taxed them. They organized into the Women's Tax Resistance League (WTRL) with the slogan “No vote, no tax.”
Wikimedia Commons
Sophia Duleep Singh stood out among the suffragists because of her position and heritage. She was the youngest daughter of the king of northern India. When her father was young he was bullied into an unequal treaty with Queen Victoria that surrendered his country to her. He and his family were banished from India. In the United Kingdom, Sophia became Victoria’s goddaughter and led an opulent life and attended every social party. Eventually she and her sisters snuck back to India where they bore witness to the harsh realities of poverty and racism. She was a celebrity in London, but there she was just another brown face. Upon return, she threw herself into the suffrage cause, slamming into Parliamentarians and demanding suffrage. She was eventually taken to court over her refusal to pay taxes.
In 1909 a Conciliation Bill was proposed to give women who owned a certain amount of property the right to vote, but the bill failed. In response Pankherst and Singh led 300 women to march on Parliament where they were met with police brutality in an event known as Bloody Friday. Singh personally fought an officer off a sister.
Still women did not back down. Militancy peaked in 1912 with more window smashing and arson attacks. Then in 1913, Emily Wilding Davison attended the Epsom Derby where the King was racing. She stepped out onto the track with a suffrage banner as he raced by and his horse trampled over her, creating a martyr for the suffrage cause. Thousands of suffrage sympathizers attended her funeral.
World War I disrupted woman suffrage activities, but slowly as women served in lower level positions, and eventually Nancy Astor became the first female MP, women took hold of power. Finally in 1928, women in the UK won the right to vote.
Women around the world were awed by the achievements of the New Zealand, Australian, American, and British women. Slowly most places in the world followed suit, especially after World War II, but in some authoritarian places today women remain disenfranchised. The vote didn’t transform everything. In fact many of the gendered expectations of women remained for decades and remain today. One could argue that the vote did little without changing the structures that deny women equal opportunity to hold power.
In 1909 a Conciliation Bill was proposed to give women who owned a certain amount of property the right to vote, but the bill failed. In response Pankherst and Singh led 300 women to march on Parliament where they were met with police brutality in an event known as Bloody Friday. Singh personally fought an officer off a sister.
Still women did not back down. Militancy peaked in 1912 with more window smashing and arson attacks. Then in 1913, Emily Wilding Davison attended the Epsom Derby where the King was racing. She stepped out onto the track with a suffrage banner as he raced by and his horse trampled over her, creating a martyr for the suffrage cause. Thousands of suffrage sympathizers attended her funeral.
World War I disrupted woman suffrage activities, but slowly as women served in lower level positions, and eventually Nancy Astor became the first female MP, women took hold of power. Finally in 1928, women in the UK won the right to vote.
Women around the world were awed by the achievements of the New Zealand, Australian, American, and British women. Slowly most places in the world followed suit, especially after World War II, but in some authoritarian places today women remain disenfranchised. The vote didn’t transform everything. In fact many of the gendered expectations of women remained for decades and remain today. One could argue that the vote did little without changing the structures that deny women equal opportunity to hold power.
Black Women's Club, Wikimedia Commons
Conclusion: Industrialization overall improved women’s lives, perhaps more than it did men’s. Urbanization led to somewhat better medical care in pregnancy (especially after germs were better understood). Women and men in industrial work did better economically than their agrarian peers and the standard of living increased considerably. Despite low wages, some women did find means of supporting themselves, and a few even acquired considerable wealth.
Women also became consumers, and with that new role came great power to influence production. Industrialization also upended the patriarchal norms in some ways because it challenged the idea of a “male provider,” as it was increasingly obvious that more and more women needed to work to make ends meet.
Industrialization fueled western imperial expansion. Factories could produce more weapons, making military conquests in Africa, Asia, Siberia, the Pacific islands, and the western Americas uneven in terms of military strength. Whether in positions of leadership or in missionary efforts, women supported imperialism and fought against it.
Industrialization changed the global make up, shifted power structures, and allowed the Global North to impose their systems on others– including their views of women. Learn more about women's role in imperialism.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How did class and region change the effects of industrialization? Did the benefits of industrialization outweigh the costs? How would women’s role in the labor force influence policy and social change? Would women be able to enter industries considered “male”? How would society adapt to allow for women to be wage earners and mothers? What would it take for women to earn the vote?
Women also became consumers, and with that new role came great power to influence production. Industrialization also upended the patriarchal norms in some ways because it challenged the idea of a “male provider,” as it was increasingly obvious that more and more women needed to work to make ends meet.
Industrialization fueled western imperial expansion. Factories could produce more weapons, making military conquests in Africa, Asia, Siberia, the Pacific islands, and the western Americas uneven in terms of military strength. Whether in positions of leadership or in missionary efforts, women supported imperialism and fought against it.
Industrialization changed the global make up, shifted power structures, and allowed the Global North to impose their systems on others– including their views of women. Learn more about women's role in imperialism.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How did class and region change the effects of industrialization? Did the benefits of industrialization outweigh the costs? How would women’s role in the labor force influence policy and social change? Would women be able to enter industries considered “male”? How would society adapt to allow for women to be wage earners and mothers? What would it take for women to earn the vote?
Draw your own conclusions
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Was the Industrial Revolution in England unnecessarily harsh for women?
In this inquiry, students examine primary source images and documents to determine the impact of the revolution on women, especially working class women. Sources examine labor in the coal mines, textile factories, and other industries to see how women may have been impacted. 
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OTHER: Cottage Industries
In this inquiry from Women in World History, students examine primary material from women across the globe to better understand the Industrial Revolution's impact on women. Check it out! |
Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- This website, Women in World History has primary source based lesson plans on women's history in a whole range of topics. Some are free while others have a cost.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in World History.
Hannah Goode: excerpt
"I work at Mr. Wilson's mill. I think the youngest child is about 7. I daresay there are 20 under 9 years. It is about half past five by our clock at home when we go in....We come out at seven by the mill. We never stop to take our meals, except at dinner.
William Crookes is overlooker in our room. He is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right....I have sometimes seen the little children drop asleep or so, but not lately. If they are catched asleep they get the strap. They are always very tired at night....I can read a little; I can't write. I used to go to school before I went to the mill; I have since I am sixteen."
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press
Questions:
William Crookes is overlooker in our room. He is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right....I have sometimes seen the little children drop asleep or so, but not lately. If they are catched asleep they get the strap. They are always very tired at night....I can read a little; I can't write. I used to go to school before I went to the mill; I have since I am sixteen."
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press
Questions:
- What do you think happened to younger children when the family was away at work in
mills? - What might be different about work done at home compared to work in the factory?
- Why did some workers oppose the imposition of laws restricting women and children's work?
- Today women are the majority of workers in textile and electronics industries around the world. What reasons do you think are given for employing mainly women? Does the problem of women's work being a "dead end" job exist in these plants too?
Mrs. Smith: excerpt
"I have three children working in Wilson's mill; one 11, one 13, and the other 14. They work regular hours there. We don't complain. If they go to drop the hours, I don't know what poor people will do. We have hard work to live as it is. ...My husband is of the same mind about it...last summer my husband was 6 weeks ill; we pledged almost all our things to live; the things are not all out of pawn yet. ...We complain of nothing but short wages...My children have been in the mill three years. I have no complaint to make of their being beaten...I would rather they were beaten than fined."
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press
Questions:
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press
Questions:
- What do you think happened to younger children when the family was away at work in
mills? - What might be different about work done at home compared to work in the factory?
- Why did some workers oppose the imposition of laws restricting women and children's work?
- Today women are the majority of workers in textile and electronics industries around the world. What reasons do you think are given for employing mainly women? Does the problem of women's work being a "dead end" job exist in these plants too?
A 6-year-old girl: Testimonies in the South Wales Mines
"I have been down six weeks and make 10 to 14 rakes a day; I carry a full 56 lbs. of coal in a wooden bucket. I work with sister Jesse and mother. It is dark the time we go."
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
- How were children treated in the mines?
Jane Peacock Watson: in the south wales mines
"I have wrought in the bowels of the earth 33 years. I have been married 23 years and had nine children, six are alive and three died of typhus a few years since. Have had two dead born. Horse-work ruins the women; it crushes their haunches, bends their ankles and makes them old women at 40."
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
- Describe the quality of life.
Maria Gooder: in the South Wales Mines
"I hurry for a man with my sister Anne who is going 18. He is good to us. I don't like being in the pit. I am tired and afraid. I go at 4:30 after having porridge for breakfast. I start hurrying at 5. We have dinner at noon. We have dry bread and nothing else. There is water in the pit but we don't sup it."
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
- Generally how many hours did women work in the mines?
Mary (11) and Rachell Enock (12): in the South Wales Mines
“We are door-keepers in the four foot level. We leave the house before six each morning and are in the level until seven o’clock and sometimes later. We get 2p a day and our light costs us 2 1⁄2 p. a week. Rachel was in a day school and she can read a little. She was run over by a tram a while ago and was home ill a long time, but she has got over it.”
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
- How would this affect the family?
Isabel Wilson (38): in the south wales mines
"I have been married 19 years and have had 10 bairns [children]:...My last child was born on Saturday morning, and I was at work on the Friday night... None of the children read, as the work is no regular..When I go below my lassie 10 years of age keeps house..."
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
Questions:
- Some ways that this type of work affected family life.
Children's Employment Commission: excerpt
"Miss --- has been for several years in the dress-making business...The common hours of business are from 8 a.m. til 11 P.M in the winters; in the summer from 6 or half-past 6 A.M. til 12 at night. During the fashionable season, that is from April til the latter end of July, it frequently happens that the ordinary hours are greatly exceeded; if there is a drawing-room or grand fete, or mourning to be made, it often happens that the work goes on for 20 hours out of the 24, occasionally all night....The general result of the long hours and sedentary occupation is to impair seriously and very frequently to destroy the health of the young women. The digestion especially suffers, and also the lungs: pain to the side is very common, and the hands and feet die away from want of circulation and exercise, "never seeing the outside of the door from Sunday to Sunday." [One cause] is the short time which is allowed by ladies to have their dresses made.
“Miss is sure that there are some thousands of young women employed in the business in London and in the country. If one vacancy were to occur now there would be 20 applicants for it. The wages generally are very low...Thinks that no men could endure the work enforced from the dress-makers."
Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press.
Questions:
“Miss is sure that there are some thousands of young women employed in the business in London and in the country. If one vacancy were to occur now there would be 20 applicants for it. The wages generally are very low...Thinks that no men could endure the work enforced from the dress-makers."
Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press.
Questions:
- Why do you think young girls wanted to become seamstresses?
- What health problems occurred with this type of work?
- Imagine the types of clothing and the life of the Victorian era middle and upper class woman. How was this job in sharp contrast to the life of other working class women?
unknown The Distressed Seamstress Song
(Sung to the air "Jenny Jones")
You gentles of England, I pray give attention,
Unto those few lines, I'm going to relate, Concerning the seamstress,I'm going to mention, Who long time has been, in a sad wretched state, Laboriously toiling, both night, noon, and morning, For a wretched subsistence, now mark what I say. She's quite unprotected, forlorn, and dejected
For sixpence, or eightpence, or tenpence a day. Come forward you nobles, and grant them assistance, Give them employ, and a fair price them pay,
And then you will find, the poor hard working seamstress, From honour and virtue will not go astray.
To shew them compassion pray quickly be stirring,
In delay, there is danger, there's no time to spare,... The pride of the world is o'er whelmed with care,
Old England's considered, for honour and virtue, And beauty the glory and pride of the world,
Nor be not hesitating, but boldly step forward, Suppression and tyranny, far away hurl.
Roy Palmer, A Ballad History of England: From 1588 to the Present Day, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1979
Questions:
You gentles of England, I pray give attention,
Unto those few lines, I'm going to relate, Concerning the seamstress,I'm going to mention, Who long time has been, in a sad wretched state, Laboriously toiling, both night, noon, and morning, For a wretched subsistence, now mark what I say. She's quite unprotected, forlorn, and dejected
For sixpence, or eightpence, or tenpence a day. Come forward you nobles, and grant them assistance, Give them employ, and a fair price them pay,
And then you will find, the poor hard working seamstress, From honour and virtue will not go astray.
To shew them compassion pray quickly be stirring,
In delay, there is danger, there's no time to spare,... The pride of the world is o'er whelmed with care,
Old England's considered, for honour and virtue, And beauty the glory and pride of the world,
Nor be not hesitating, but boldly step forward, Suppression and tyranny, far away hurl.
Roy Palmer, A Ballad History of England: From 1588 to the Present Day, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1979
Questions:
- To whom was the song directed?
- What societal concerns about the "distressed seamstress" did the song reveal?
- What appeals did it use to convey its message?
- If you were writing a song which addressed the plight of the seamstress, what reasons for hiring and giving girls a decent wage might you include?
Remedial Herstory Editors. "24. 1850-1950 WOMEN’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.
Primary AUTHOR: |
Kelsie Brook Eckert
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Primary Reviewer: |
Jacqui Nelson
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Consulting Team |
Editors |
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Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant Professor of History at Maryville College. Chloe Gardner, Consultant PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University |
Amy Flanders
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy ReviewersAncient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman Professor of History at Colorado State University Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon Professor of History at Wilson College Sarah Stone PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University Medieval: Dr. Katherine Koh Professor of History at La Sierra University Dr. Jonathan Couser Professor of History at Plymouth State University Dr. Shahla Haeri Professor of History at Boston University Lauren Cole PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University |
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Lucy is a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton who has become the spokeswoman for human evolution. She is perhaps the best known and most studied fossil hominid of the twentieth century, the benchmark by which other discoveries of human ancestors are judged.”–From Lucy’s Legacy
Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt clarifies the role of women in Egyptian society during the first millennium BCE, allowing for more nuanced discussions of women in the Third Intermediate Period. It is an intensive study of a corpus that is both geographically and temporally localized around the city of Thebes, which was the cultural and religious centre of Egypt during this period and home to a major national necropolis.
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The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that warfare and the war of the sexes are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible—and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting dramas of what happened in our past.
Women of Babylon is a much-needed historical/art historical study that investigates the concepts of femininity which prevailed in Assyro-Babylonian society. Zainab Bahrani's detailed analysis of how the culture of ancient Mesopotamia defined sexuality and gender roles both in, and through, representation is enhanced by a rich selection of visual material extending from 6500 BC - 1891 AD. Professor Bahrani also investigates the ways in which women of the ancient Near East have been perceived in classical scholarship up to the nineteenth century.
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Ancient History (3000 BC-500 AD)
Historians Helen Bond and Joan Taylor explore the way in which Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha and a whole host of other women - named and unnamed - have been remembered by posterity, noting how many were silenced, tamed or slurred by innuendo - though occasionally they get to slay dragons.
Hatshepsut successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypt's most prolific building periods. Scholars have long speculated as to why her monuments were destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her unprecedented rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power - and why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.
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Byzantine Intersectionality reveals the fascinating, little-examined conversations in medieval thought and visual culture around sexual and reproductive consent, bullying and slut-shaming, homosocial and homoerotic relationships, trans and nonbinary gender identities, and the depiction of racialized minorities.
This first comprehensive work on women in pre-Columbian American cultures describes gender roles and relationships in North, Central, and South America from 12,000 B.C. to the A.D. 1500s. Utilizing many key archaeological works, Karen Olsen Bruhns and Karen E. Stothert redress some of the long-standing male bias in writing about ancient Native American lifeways.
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This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra--women who ruled with real power--and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today.
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middle ages (500-1500 AD)
A history of peasants in the Middle Ages, the story takes the listener into the life of Marion, the carpenter's wife, and her extended family as they struggle to survive through hardship, featuring a year in their lives at the mercy of the weather and the Lord of the Manor.
This important study provides the only comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty in 581 AD, also known as the Six Dynasties. Bret Hinsch offers rich descriptions of the most important aspects of female life in this era, including family and marriage, motherhood, political power, work, inheritance, education, and religious roles.
This critical anthology presents the poems of more than 200 Arabic women poets active from the 600s through the 1400s CE. It marks the first appearance in English translation for many of these poems. The volume includes biographical information about the poets, as well as an analysis of the development of women’s poetry in classical Arabic literature that places the women and the poems within their cultural context.
This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history.
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Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period and profiles eight individual women in depth.
These pages capture a thousand years of medieval women's visionary writing, from late antiquity to the 15th century. Written by hermits, recluses, wives, mothers, wandering teachers, founders of religious communities, and reformers, the selections reveal how medieval women felt about their lives, the kind of education they received, how they perceived the religion of their time, and why ascetic life attracted them.
Berenice II (c. 264-221 BCE), daughter of King Magas of Cyrene and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, came to embody all the key religious, political, and artistic ideals of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Though she arrived there nearly friendless, with the taint of murder around her, she became one of the most accomplished and powerful of the Macedonian queens descended from the successors of Alexander the Great.
For history and biography lovers, the 15th-century life and travels of the extraordinary Margery Kempe, who left her family to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
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The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings; a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a little deeper into the truth, we can see that the “Dark” Ages were anything but.
A thousand years ago, a young Japanese girl embarked on a journey from deep in the countryside of eastern Japan to the capital. Forty years later, with the long account of that journey as a foundation, the mature woman skillfully created an autobiography that incorporates many moments of heightened awareness from her long life. Married at age thirty-three, she identified herself as a reader and writer more than as a wife and mother; enthralled by fiction, she bore witness to the dangers of romantic fantasy as well as the enduring consolation of self-expression.
In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of 15th-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer tantalizing insight into how malicious magic would be used and would later cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.
Today, the name of Marie, who became countess of Champagne, is associated with the medieval courts of love, and she is recognized as one of the greatest literary patrons of her day. As the crusades tore her life apart, she ruled over one of the largest domains in France for almost two decades. During that time, and well aware of the disadvantage of being a woman, she was compelled to defend her rights and those of her children--even to the point of going to war against her half-brother, Philip Augustus.
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early modern (1500-1800 ad)
An important selection from the largely unknown writings of women philosophers of the early modern period. Each selection is prefaced by a headnote giving a biographical account of its author and setting the piece in historical context. Atherton’s Introduction provides a solid framework for assessing these works and their place in modern philosophy.
Women and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia draws on recent research to underscore the various ways Iberian women influenced and contributed to their communities, engaging with a broader academic discussion of women’s agency and cultural impact in the Iberian Peninsula. By focusing on women from across the socioeconomic and religious spectrum—elite, bourgeois, and peasant Christian women, Jewish, Muslim, converso, and Morisco women, and married, widowed, and single women—this volume highlights the diversity of women’s experiences, examining women’s social, economic, political, and religious ties to their families and communities in both urban and rural environments.
In Engendering Islands Ashley M. Williard argues that early Caribbean reconstructions of masculinity and femininity sustained occupation, slavery, and nascent ideas of race. In the face of historical silences, Williard’s close readings of archival and narrative texts reveals the words, images, and perspectives that reflected and produced new ideas of human difference. Juridical, religious, and medical discourses expose the interdependence of multiple conditions—male and female, enslaved and free, Black and white, Indigenous and displaced, normative and disabled—in the islands claimed for the French Crown.
Exploring the works of key women writers within their cultural, artistic and socio-political contexts, this book considers changes in the perception of women in early modern China. The sixteenth century brought rapid developments in technology, commerce and the publishing industry that saw women emerging in new roles as both consumers and producers of culture.
An innovative and valuable resource for understanding women's roles in changing societies, this book brings together the history of Africa, the Atlantic and gender before the 20th century. It explores trade, slavery and migrationin the context of the Euro-African encounter.
In June 1846 Susan Shelby Magoffin, eighteen years old and a bride of less than eight months, set out with her husband, a veteran Santa Fe trader, on a trek from Independence, Missouri, through New Mexico and south to Chihuahua. Her travel journal was written at a crucial time, when the Mexican War was beginning and New Mexico was occupied by Stephen Watts Kearny and the Army of the West.
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modern History (1800-now)
The author traces the history of Indian women from the nineteenth century under colonial rule, to the twentieth century after Independence. She begins with the reform movement, established by men to educate women, and demonstrates how education changed their lives, enabling them to take part in public life. Through the women's own accounts, the author has compiled an accessible and immediate record of their achievements over the past two centuries, which will be of interest to students of South Asia and to anyone concerned with women and their history.
Recording the important milestones in the birth of the modern feminist movement and the rise of women into greater social, economic, and political power, Miles takes us through a colorful pageant of astonishing women. Women in the arts, women in sports, women in business, women in religion, women in politics—this is a one-stop roundup of the tremendous progress women have made in the modern era.
This pioneering study of the social and political lives of Muslim women has shaped a whole generation of scholarship. In it, Leila Ahmed explores the historical roots of contemporary debates, ambitiously surveying Islamic discourse on women from Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded to Iraq during the classical age to Egypt during the modern era. The book includes a new foreword by Kecia Ali situating the text in its scholarly context and explaining its enduring influence.
Founded in 1919 along with the League of Nations, the International Labour Organization (ILO) establishes labor standards and produces knowledge about the world of work, serving as a forum for nations, unions, and employer associations. Over time, the ILO embraced non-discrimination and equal treatment. It now promotes fair globalization, standardized employment and decent work for women in the developing world. In Making the Woman Worker, Eileen Boris illuminates the ILO's transformation in the context of the long fight for social justice.
Women in World History brings together the most recent scholarship in women's and world history in a single volume covering the period from 1450 to the present, enabling readers to understand women's relationship to world developments over the past five hundred years.
History has largely ignored these female swashbucklers, until now. Here are their stories, from ancient Norse princess Alfhild to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary corsairs; from Grace O’Malley, who terrorized shipping operations around the British Isles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; to Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of 1,400 ships off China in the early 19th century.
She was the first Western woman to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun - but that pioneering ordination was really just one in a life full of revolutionary acts. Freda Bedi (1911-1977) broke the rules of gender, race, and religion - in many cases before it was thought that the rules were ready to be challenged. She was at various times a force in the struggle for Indian independence, a spiritual seeker, a scholar, a professor, a journalist, an author, a social worker, a wife, and mother of four children.
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industrial revolution
From the mid-18th century, new machines powered by steam and coal began to produce goods on a massive scale. This was known as the Industrial Revolution. Workers were poorly paid and their working conditions were harsh. Life was even harder for working women, who received lower wages and fewer rights than men. Some women, however, would not stand for the poor treatment of themselves or others. These are the stories of four trailblazers who achieved amazing things in difficult circumstances.
This book charts the unhappy but aspirational story of women and children at work through the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the 20th century. Without women there would have been no pre-industrial cottage industries, without women the Industrial Revolution would not have been nearly as industrial and nowhere near as revolutionary.
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Prehistory (3,300,000-3000 BC)
They live in caves and huddle around fires, but they are fully human, though they belong to our most ancient history. Risa the Arbiter has now spent years in her role and is known and respected throughout the area. Her children are half-grown and exhibiting traits of independence, both of thought and action. Her tribe has grown along with her and now needs more than one Arbiter can provide alone. Risa struggles with how best to organize her duties and establishes acolytes in each village to screen petitioners.
Ancient HISTORY (3000 BC - 500 AD)
The men of Athens gather to determine the truth. Meanwhile, the women of the city, who have no vote, are gathering in the shadows. The women know truth is a slippery thing in the hands of men. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard. Until now.
Timely, unflinching, and transportive, Laura Shepperson’s Phaedra carves open long-accepted wounds to give voice to one of the most maligned figures of mythology and offers a stunning story of how truth bends under the weight of patriarchy but can be broken open by the force of one woman’s bravery. |
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Middle ages (500-1500 ad)
The earl of Trent's Norman widow, Blanche, and her English steward, Miles Edwulfson, take possession of Blanche's estates, hoping to live a life of peace and quiet. However, they run afoul of a baron named Aimerie, who is building an illegal castle and taxing the surrounding manors--including Blanche's--to pay for it. Aimerie has ambitions that go far beyond this castle, to the heart of the English throne, and he won't let anyone stand in his way. What's more, Aimerie's hot-headed son, Ernoul, lusts after Blanche and wants to make her his wife. When Blanche and Miles refuse to pay Aimerie's taxes, Aimerie vows to crush them.
Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan -- or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems
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For all fifteen years of her life, Pauline de Pamiers has witnessed an attack on her family, friends, and faith. It’s the early thirteenth century and the Pope and King of France are conducting a Crusade against the Cathars; the only crusade on European soil and against another Christian sect. As a member of this sect in France that sits outside the dominant Roman Church, Pauline is an outsider: young, but independent and bold.
11th century North Africa. In an attempt to change her destiny, love-struck Zaynab makes a false prophecy: that she is destined to marry a man who will create an empire. Although her plan backfires, Zaynab’s intelligence, beauty and ambition leads to four marriages, each lifting her status higher.
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Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful women in Europe, is crowned queen of England beside her young husband Henry II. While Henry battles their enemies and lays his plans, Eleanor is an adept acting ruler and mother to their growing brood of children. But she yearns for more than this - if only Henry would listen.
England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side—or any poor woman’s for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.
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Early modern (1500-1800 ad)
Runner-up for the National Book Award for Children's Literature in 1969, Constance is a classic of historical young adult fiction, recounting the daily life, hardships, romances, and marriage of a young girl during the early years of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth.
Sirma used to be happy. She had a home, loving parents, and wonderful friends. But her quiet mountain village changed forever when she lost her two best friends to a gang of outlaws. The village elders did nothing, fearing the wrath of Hamza Bei – the head outlaw in the area. Not long after, the same outlaws returned and devastated her village. Sirma has had enough. On St. George’s day, she disguised herself as a man and lead her own mountain gang dedicated to protecting the mountain villages and searching for Hamza Bei to put a stop to his tyranny. But the path she has chosen is harsh and merciless. Clashing with gangs of outlaws, surviving the elements in the mountain wilderness, and keeping her men from becoming the scoundrels they’ve sworn to fight are just a few of the challenges. But the biggest issue was the fact that her comrades had no idea they were led by a woman.
The author of The Soong Dynasty gives us our most vivid and reliable biography yet of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, remembered through the exaggeration and falsehood of legend as the ruthless Manchu concubine who seduced and murdered her way to the Chinese throne in 1861.
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modern history (1800-now)
Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: She was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.
When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28-year-old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world. The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?
A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity. His wife Katie scrubs floors to put food on the table and clothes on her children's backs, instilling in them the values of being practical and planning ahead.
South China coast, 1801. Sold as a child to a floating brothel, 26-year-old Yang has finally bought her freedom, only to be kidnapped by a brutal pirate gang and forced to marry their leader. Dragged through stormy seas and lawless bandit havens, Yang must stay scrappy to survive. She embeds herself in the dark business of piracy, carving out her role against the resistance of powerful pirate leaders and Cheung Po Tsai, her husband's flamboyant male concubine. As she is caught between bitter rivals fighting for mastery over the pirates—and for her heart—Yang faces a choice between two things she never dreamed might be hers: power or love. Based on a true story that has never been fully told until now, The Flower Boat Girl is the tale of a woman who, against all odds, shaped history on her own terms.
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Industrial revolution
In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed telephone operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information. At the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women—but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them. They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. Army under the Articles of War. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds. Deployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flu. Not all of them would survive. The women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now.
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bibliography
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British Library Editors, “Womens Suffrage Timeline.” British Library. N.D. https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/womens-suffrage-timeline.
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ENGEL, BARBARA ALPERN. “WOMEN, WORK AND FAMILY IN THE FACTORIES OF RURAL RUSSIA.” Russian History 16, no. 2/4 (1989): 223–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24656506.
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press.
Gillard, Julia. “A global story: Women’s suffrage, forgotten history, and a way forward.” Brookings Institute. September 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/a-global-story/.
Jackson S, Ho PSY. Interconnected Histories: Locating Women’s Lives in Time and Space. Women Doing Intimacy. 2020 Jun 12:47–86. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-28991-9_3. PMCID: PMC7286840.
Reese, Lyn. “WOMEN’S WORK IN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS PRIMARY SOURCE LESSONS FROM EUROPE & EAST ASIA,” Women in World History Curriculum, 2005.
Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
British Library Editors, “Womens Suffrage Timeline.” British Library. N.D. https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/womens-suffrage-timeline.
Children Working Underground Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru National Museum of Wales, 1979.
ENGEL, BARBARA ALPERN. “WOMEN, WORK AND FAMILY IN THE FACTORIES OF RURAL RUSSIA.” Russian History 16, no. 2/4 (1989): 223–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24656506.
Factory Inquiry Commission, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Found in Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press.
Gillard, Julia. “A global story: Women’s suffrage, forgotten history, and a way forward.” Brookings Institute. September 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/a-global-story/.
Jackson S, Ho PSY. Interconnected Histories: Locating Women’s Lives in Time and Space. Women Doing Intimacy. 2020 Jun 12:47–86. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-28991-9_3. PMCID: PMC7286840.
Reese, Lyn. “WOMEN’S WORK IN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS PRIMARY SOURCE LESSONS FROM EUROPE & EAST ASIA,” Women in World History Curriculum, 2005.
Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
