3.2: Working Class Women

Mill Girls

The Industrial Revolution was driven by the production of textiles, cloth made from wool, linen, hemp, and, most of all, cotton. For centuries, textile production was done by women and children on the farms, mostly during the winter months when there was little to do outdoors. Some of these textiles were used to clothe the family or were sold at local markets, but by the 17th century, “middle men” would come by each spring to buy whatever the family had produced over the winter and sell the fabric at markets in faraway towns and cities. This system was known as Cottage Industry and the money provided extra income for farming families, especially in years of poor crops.

By the late 18th century, machines such as the spinning jenny and the power loom began replacing Cottage Industry because they could produce far more material in less time. At the same time, the population of New England outgrew the output of the land, leading many young men to move to the frontier to farm. This combination of economic forces left a large population of girls and young women without marriage prospects, which was a serious concern for their families since such women, derisively referred to as Old Maids, were bound to become economic burdens. However, a solution presented itself as textile mills were built along the rivers and streams of New England, creating job opportunities and turning “Old Maids” into Mill Girls.

Factory owners actively recruited girls and young women from the farms of New England to work in the textile mills and shoe factories that were being built throughout the Northeast. The girls were paid a wage and provided room in the factory’s dormitory, which was run by a matron whose job was to keep the girls safe and oversee their behavior. Mill girls were required to attend church and any contact with men was chaperoned, thus ensuring their fathers that they were well cared for. Most of the girls sent their wages home to their families, which helped with the struggling farm or provided an education for their brothers. Yet those who wrote their thoughts down in letters or journals indicate that they felt good about being able to contribute to their family income and were proud to earn a paycheck. They also felt a strong connection to the other girls with whom they lived and worked, a sisterhood, with older girls helping the newly arrived to adjust to life away from home.

The sense of community experienced by many of the mill girls is illustrated by the Lowell Offering, a literary magazine containing drawings, poetry, songs, and short stories from the girls who worked at the Lowell Mill in Massachusetts from 1840-1845. The women wrote about home, family, their faith in God, death, and many other themes that were important to them, particularly since they were away from home and family. Below are the opening lines of a short story entitled Marion’s Departure:

“She knew that she was dying—but the thought

Came with no terror—for her soul was full

Of heavenly hope and peace; and from her lips,

Flowed the rich music of the Christian’s faith,

Till death’s dark seal had stamped them for its own.” (Orianna 1842)

Most of the works within the magazine were identified only by the first name of the author, in this case Orianna, who wrote Marion’s Departure about the death of a woman’s sister. Although we cannot know for certain if the story was based upon the author’s experiences, given the closeness women felt for their families and the prevalence of early death during the 19th century, it is likely that it was. The Lowell Offering provided the mill girls not only a means of self-expression and community, but it provides modern audiences a glimpse into the hearts and minds of the first generation of factory-working women in the United States.

Mill Girls were proud and happy that they were earning wages and contributing to the families’ support, but the work they performed was difficult and often dangerous. Prior to 1830, the mills were relatively safe and wages were fair, but by 1834, wages began to drop and working conditions became more and more unbearable. This caused mill girls to organize one of the first unions in the United States, The Factory Girls Association, which represented young women from several textile mills throughout New England and demanded that wages be raised and working conditions become safer. Their hard work would be rewarded, at first, but by the middle of the 1840s, wages dropped once again, causing them to reorganize as the Female Labor Reform Association and affiliate with a male union, the New England Workingman’s Association. This time, their efforts would not be rewarded due to competition from newly arrived, impoverished Irish immigrants who were desperate enough to take the lower wages. By 1850, most mill workers were immigrants who worked for extremely low wages in terrible conditions, which kept them in poverty and risked their health and their lives.

Immigrant Workers

As more and more Irish immigrants entered the United States in the 1840s and 1850s, they swelled the ranks of factory workers and domestic servants, the latter making it easier for middle- and upper-class women to escape the drudgery of housework. For young Irish women, domestic service was considered a large step above factory work but also came with its own set of problems. Factory workers were employed 12 hours a day, six days a week, but many domestic servants were on call 24 hours a day, six days a week, sometimes every day, and lived with the families they served, which allowed for little to no privacy. Irish girls were hired to perform all manner of housework, including cooking, cleaning, child care, and especially laundry, which was the chore most women loathed and hired out as soon as they had any extra money. These young women worked constantly for little pay and even less respect from the families they served. It was not uncommon for domestic servants to experience sexual assault and rape at the hands of their male employers, and if the attack resulted in pregnancy, it was the girl who was dismissed from her post and shamed.

Many Irish girls, particularly those who immigrated alone, found it impossible to support themselves with either factory or domestic service, and so they turned to prostitution to survive. Ironically, within the 19th-century world of high morality, prostitution was a thriving business in all levels of society. Wealthy men tended to frequent high-class brothels where drinking, gambling, and other forms of entertainment were common and the girls worked from private rooms. Prostitutes working in these establishments tended to be better protected and treated reasonably well by their customers, but most prostitutes were not so lucky. Instead of brothels, most prostitutes lived and worked in very small rooms called cribs, with no more than a bed, and still others turned tricks standing up in the alley. The women who worked out of cribs or on the streets earned very little money and endured all manner of abuse from beatings to murder. Further, sexually transmitted diseases were rampant among prostitutes, who suffered the terrible symptoms of illnesses such as Syphilis without medical care and passed the illnesses on to their customers. Most prostitutes lived dangerously short lives at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

Legal Rights

The daily struggles of working-class women were made even more difficult by the fact that they had virtually no legal protections under the law. Women working in factories or as domestic servants had no legal right to their own wages, so it was not unusual for fathers or husbands to collect a woman’s pay directly from her employer. Women who worked as prostitutes, since their very occupation was illegal, had no rights to their pay or physical safety, and they certainly could not go to the police for help. Middle- and upper-class women were protected by the respectability brought to them by their husbands and the ideals of true womanhood, but lower-class women enjoyed no such respect or protection, either in the eyes of the law or society.

Conclusion

While the ideals of the Cult of Domesticity heavily influenced middle- and upper-class women, women who occupied the lowest socioeconomic classes did not have the luxury of maintaining such high moral standards. Their lives, particularly those who were single, were filled with the daily struggle to earn enough money to survive and provide for their families, a task made more difficult because of women’s legal rights during the Antebellum era. It would take decades and several reform movements to begin to transform these laws.

Question to Consider

How do you think working-class women were impacted by the ideals of the Cult of Domesticity?