Women in Transitional Worlds
In a world where a woman's sphere was defined by their duties of motherhood, child-rearing, and homemaking; the beginnings of industrialization posed specific concerns on the impact that factory work would have on family life, even more specifically on women. The nineteenth-century witnessed a crucial change in the established pattern of society. Women were at crossroads where their domesticity, in the early period of industrialization, became challenged. This was a time of changing orders and a period of rural and urban transition. Working in the mills enabled women to enjoy social and economic independence thus creating new pressures not only economically, but also culturally. No other women felt the great impact of industrialization in 1800s more than the women of Lowell. When these women came to work in the mills, they brought with them different values, attitudes and expectations from their social setting into the industrial setting. The women of the Lowell mills were very young, single and mostly from the rural areas of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. They usually came to work in the mills for three years. Some women stayed longer than five years, leaving and returning during that time,
During the 1920s, women felt that they had more control over their own destinies. This period was characterized by national affluence, smaller families, liberation from housework, and increased mobility. They were able to attend college, they were able to limit the number of children due to birth control methods, and if the marriage did not work out, divorce was another option more accessible than before. "The frequency of divorces and the speed with which they are rushed through have become commonplaces..."Anybody with $25 can get a divorce"(Lynd 250). Women now could drink, they could smoke, they could engage in sex if they wanted. Women 's emancipation was never more evident than any other time prior in history. While society in the 1920s was supportive of a young woman's working before marriage, the opinion still prevailed that once married, she should stay home. At the time, this was thought to be a modern attitude, but in reality, it was no different than the approval given a century before to women who worked in the Lowell mills before settling down. They did not question women's right to work. They simply made it clear that they did not think women were capable of combining marriage and career. Dorothy Dumbar Bromley defined a "new style feminist" negating the "old school of fighting feminist who wore flat heels had no feminine charm, or the current species who antagonize men with the constants clamor about maiden names, equal rights, woman's place in the world" (252). Furthermore, she asserted that the new successful modern women should marry, have children as well as a career. Moreover she should openly admit she "likes men and is grateful to more than a few for the encourageme! The advances of women made in the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century were not paramount. True, she was able to enjoy freedom to wear comfortable clothes, participate in sports, enjoy sexual fulfillment, and work outside the house if she so desired. Nevertheless, the underlying truth was that she still was held up to the traditional concepts that home, motherhood, husband, and the attainment of beauty were still woman's sphere of influence. Not to mention the fact that her position in the labor force, as a woman, still held less prestigious jobs with less pay than men. Amid of some set back, the women for the twenties were better off than her counterpart from the Lowell mills. A compairison of women from the year 1890 and the year 1920. nt and help they have given her"...regarding to "free love, she should think that is impractical rather than immoral" (Bromley 252-253). before marrying and settling down (Brownson, Source 1). Few of these textile workers considered the mills their lifelong occupation. The evidence suggested that most of these young women, who decided to work in the mills, did so for various reasons. The mills offered individual self-support, enabling them to live in an urban environment with its amenities, not available in the countryside, and gave them a taste of economic and social independence from their fa! It was extremely important, to the survival of the textile industry workforce, to provide a safe setting to secure the reputation of their female workers if they were to continue to draw their workforce from their surrounding farming communities. Therefore in order to "obtain constant importation of female hands from the country it is necessary to secure the moral protection of their character while they are resident in Lowell. This, therefore, is the chief object of that moral police"(Mills154, source 2). The concepts that women were to marry, have children, and obey their husbands were still centrifugal force of this era. Premarital and extramarital sexual activities were taboo for respectable women. They were not expected to find pleasure in sex, and submitting to their
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Approximate Word count = 2591
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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