The Industrial Revolution was not a time and place for women and children to be a part of. Although the Industrial Revolution did provide an independent wage, mobility, a better standard of living for some, many others had to face a life of hardship. Many of the working conditions women and children had to work in were usually unsanitary and rather dangerous. Many diseases were spread, which often lead to many deaths during the revolution.
Women were faced with double burdens. Women needed to find waged work outside of their home and were still expected to continue with their domestic chores and child care. Women had many burdens upon their shoulders, doing twice the amount of work as men, but were still were receiving less wages. But the need for wages kept increasing, therefore children and women needed to continue working. Because children had to work, they were deprived of an education.
Women and children were treated unfairly during this drastic time in the United States. Women needed to work twice as hard and children were forced to grow up quickly. Living conditions may have slightly improved, but the hardships and struggles throughout the work day was overbearing and exhausting.
I like how you titled this because it is so accurate as to what women endured during the Industrial Revolution. I have no idea how I would balance a 60 hour work week while taking care of a family when I got home and was exhausted. Also during that time, families had so many more children because of lack of contraceptives and birth control methods. So women would go home and have to take care of 5-6 children, I cannot imagine.
ReplyDeleteYes, I also agree that this title is very creative and accurate at describing the circumstances for a mother and her family during this time period. I can't imagine the amount of pressure that was forced upon these mothers, who were expected to 60 hour work weeks along with taking care of the children and putting dinner on the table every night.
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