How were women affected by working in factories?.
During the industrial revolution, "wage slaves- worked in factories. These factories had horrible working conditions. The workers were forced to work thirteen or fourteen hours a day. They would be slaves if they weren't getting paid - hence the name "wage slaves-. There were young children and adults, all of them women. The women didn't know that what went on in the factories was wrong. They didn't like .
The conditions at all, but they didn't complain too much because they thought it was normal. .
There were many females who have had "corporeal punishment inflicted upon .
them."" (Reading A) For example, one eleven-year-old girl had her leg broken with a billet of wood.
The workers were forced to work thirteen hours a day, having almost no time for .
Food, or any education.
In addition to the bad working conditions, they were all forced to sleep in Boardinghouses, because their homes were miles away from the factories. The women slept six to a poorly ventilated room, and there were only three beds in each room. Also, while working, the windows are all closed, causing heat and moisture in the air.
When asked why the windows weren't open, a woman answered, "When the wind blew, the threads did not work well."" (Reading 2). She was completely unaware that the deprivation of fresh air wasn't normal, or healthy. And, when a worker named Miss Bartlett was told that to be dismissed by a bell has a sense of blind obedience and slavery, she replied, "Our engagements are voluntarily entered into with our employers . . .There isn't a tinge of slavery existing in it.""(Reading 3).
The women were slaves. They left their quiet homes to work in these bad conditions, day after day. The "employers- paid people to recruit new workers. They "paid a dollar a head for all he brings to the market, and more in proportion to the distance.""(Reading 4). The women were lied to in order to persuade them to leave their homes.
