Before the industrial revolution families were working from home all working on different parts of production, in order to produce as much as possible in order to support the family. However with the introduction of these new machines, large factories were erected as their was a need for mass production, as Britain had now become a capitalistic trading country.
Weaving was seen as a skilled job, was dominated by a male work force. Women and children were given more labour intensive work with a poor pair compared to the men. This was a regional specialisation in East Anglia, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Lancashire had a large migration of Irish women, as they saw the opportunity as golden to take part in industrialisation. Although this industry continued to grow and by the 1830’s their was over a ¼ million cotton weavers in England and Scotland, their was always a need for more workers, as production levels had become so high.
Britain in the 18th century was still a huge agricultural country, the industrial revolution expanded this as they no longer had to just supply the local village, but were trading across the world. The transformation of farming constricted women’s ability to earn their living from the land. As work was unskilled, very labour intensive and poorly paid, so men took over the bulk of the work. However women were employed during the autumn, for the harvesting of the crops and sometimes in the spring. Men outnumbered women by 20/1 in agriculture in the south counties, but in the north and Scotland women outnumbered men. I believe that this was the case as the north was the blacksmithing took place which I will discuss the women’s role in this later on.
Private domestic service took place in homes of professionals during 1750 – 1850, which created a huge proportion of full time employment among young women about 2/5 of all working women. The job was created in order to free the wife and daughters of any household chores. The women were given long contracts, paid annually and provided with board and lodging. Provincial towns depended on these domestic servants, especially in London which had 1/5 of all servants in England.
During this period of time a lot of apprenticeships were made open to women in industries such as blacksmithing, hatting, bookbinding and Mantua making. Apprenticeships usually took two years to qualify, making you very skilled in that profession and earning up to £40 a year.
Blacksmithing was a northern counties industry which reached its height in the 1830’s, it was done in the home in workshops, as only an anvil and a hammer was needed. His wife helped him produce large quantities of nails, horse shoes and tools for sale to local farmers, builders, carpenters, craftsmen and households.
The sweated trades come from the textile industry and the drive towards increasing mass production, which was accompanied by the mechanization of the industry. The work was un skilled, low pay, long hours and bad working environment, as their was no trade unions established at this time. One of the sweated trades included women and children working in the mining pits, pulling sledges of coal along the pit floors, which would have been extremely hard work. However this kind of work for women decreased in counties such as Durham and Northumberland after 1780 but continued in Yorkshire and Lancashire up until the 1840’s. It was made illegal in 1842 for any women or child to work underground, as it was seen to dangerous, so mining was solely a man’s industry. Losing all these employees to this law they saw the introduction of the horses doing the job under the instruction of young boys as part of their apprenticeships.
So what was a women’s relationship between her home and work? Well that depends on the location of where they were living therefore what industry they were in. If a wife/mother had to work in a factory for long hours in order to help support the family then the family and home maybe neglected unless she had a daughter that was made to look after the home. Some daughters even with a father had to work and save hard for the family and their future, missing out on her education.
To conclude on the whole, I think that industrial revolution made women better off. Initially women suffered from declining employment opportunities, but after the turn of the 19th century prospects improved. From my research I found out that women were better off in 1850 than 1750 for two reasons the first is that women withdrew from the labour force meaning that they could have leisure time and look after their family.
However on the otherside of the coin, women lose their economic independence leaving them to rely on husbands and son’s. For the women that remained in the labour force they had improved working conditions. Also in 1876 women were granted emancipation, which gave them some equal rights to men.
Bibliography
Susan, Kent-Gender & Power in Britain, 1640-1990, Routledge(1999)
E. Royston Pike- Human documents of the Industrial Revolution in Britain,George Allen & Unwin(1966)
Ivy Pinchbeck- Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution 1750-1850, Frank Cass & Company ltd(1930)
Jane Rendall- Women in an Industrializing society: England 1750-1850, Blackwell publishers(1990)
Deborah Simonton- A history of European Women’s work 1700 to the present, Routledge(1998)
Deborah Valenze – The first Industrial Woman, Oxford Uni Press(1995)
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