Factory work Hard conditions

During the Industrial Revolution, factory work became one of the main sources of employment for working-class women, but the conditions they faced were extremely harsh, dangerous, and deeply unfair. Women were drawn into factories such as textile mills and cotton factories where they worked long shifts of 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week. Factory owners preferred hiring women because they could pay them significantly less than men and believed women were easier to control and less likely to protest or organize. Work was very repetitive and physically demanding, with women often being expected to use high-speed machinery with little or no protective gear. Mangled fingers, broken limbs, and even death were not infrequent. It was practically inevitable that most women were forced to survive under such difficult circumstances owing to economic necessity and lack of alternative work opportunities.^[1]

The conditions in the factory were unhealthy and unsafe. The textile mills were full of noise, and poorly ventilated with cotton dust suspended in the atmosphere that caused respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis and "brown lung" disease. The machinery noise resulted in progressive hearing loss, and there was poor sanitation leading to wider disease dissemination. Women were disciplined harshly and strictly watched by male overseers who enforced tough rules and penalized small mistakes or lateness, usually by insult or fines. Sexual harassment also existed, but women did not have official channels of reporting it or of seeking redress. Working mothers fared worse, since there was no child care. Many women had to bring their children with them into unsafe factory conditions or abandon them at home, putting families at risk. Despite all this, women were paid salaries to support a significant number of families, so they could enjoy some modest level of financial independence.^[2]

Besides perpetuating the exploitation, women increasingly took part in labor reform movements. Mutual suffering under the injustice created incentives for strike and protest participation demanding safer working conditions, equal pay for equal work, and civilized hours of labor. Women were actors in early trade union activity and joined hands with reformers in exposing factory abuses. Their testimony in official investigations revealed the brutal realities of factory labor, and their witness helped to inspire reforms such as the Factory Acts that progressively improved conditions and capped working hours. They also provided important pre-cursors to the later women's movement by connecting labor movements to gender equality campaigns. Lastly, women's presence in the factory during the Industrial Revolution placed in the forefront urgent social injustices and helped spur society onto broad legal and political reform.^{[1], [2]}

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