Bettina Bradbury The Home As Workplace Analysis
Critical Review
Bettina Bradbury, “The Home as Workplace,” Visions: Canada Since Confederation (Winter 2016): 177-189
The Home as Workplace is an article by Bettina Bradbury, in which she discusses how the Industrial Revolution from the 1850's to the 1900's in Canada made families dependant on a wage (177). Wage earning altered the family dynamic in terms work having to be performed outside and within the household. Bradbury's principle argument is that “while many of the task performed by wives and children in working-class homes were similar to those done in agriculture, artisanal, or even professional and bourgeois households, dependance on wages shaped their work in specific ways” (177). She offers insight into the household during …show more content…
All themes are then divided up into sub categories that cover all aspects of the family dynamic as they sought to earn a wage. The first theme considers male family heads, as at the time the male of the household was the “breadwinner” of the family. The men would earn the majority of the wages but sometimes this was not enough income to sustain the family comfortably. It was the wife's responsibility to transform the money into necessarily elements for survival such as food, clothing, and shelter (178). It was also a women's task to make sure the money lasted until the next time the husband got paid. Bradbury also discussed wage-earning offspring as children lacked a childhood since once they reached a certain age he/she needed to work so the family could contribute to the family income …show more content…
Previous to this article the reader maybe have been unaware of the major responsibilities that women had to take on within the home, that ensured the survival of their family. Bradbury makes the interesting point that if families were not dependant on a wage a women may have sent her clothes out to be washed, not subjecting herself to the hard labour this task involved such strain from lifting, burns from scolding water, and caustic substances (184). Women may also not have been concerned with sewing and mending because if they was not dependant on a wage she could buy new. Children who were not of age to work (mostly female) would help their mother with these tasks, in tern learning skills to earn money later on. Although, needing to work took children out of school which was controversial in some cities
Bettina Bradbury, “The Home as Workplace,” Visions: Canada Since Confederation (Winter 2016): 177-189
The Home as Workplace is an article by Bettina Bradbury, in which she discusses how the Industrial Revolution from the 1850's to the 1900's in Canada made families dependant on a wage (177). Wage earning altered the family dynamic in terms work having to be performed outside and within the household. Bradbury's principle argument is that “while many of the task performed by wives and children in working-class homes were similar to those done in agriculture, artisanal, or even professional and bourgeois households, dependance on wages shaped their work in specific ways” (177). She offers insight into the household during …show more content…
All themes are then divided up into sub categories that cover all aspects of the family dynamic as they sought to earn a wage. The first theme considers male family heads, as at the time the male of the household was the “breadwinner” of the family. The men would earn the majority of the wages but sometimes this was not enough income to sustain the family comfortably. It was the wife's responsibility to transform the money into necessarily elements for survival such as food, clothing, and shelter (178). It was also a women's task to make sure the money lasted until the next time the husband got paid. Bradbury also discussed wage-earning offspring as children lacked a childhood since once they reached a certain age he/she needed to work so the family could contribute to the family income …show more content…
Previous to this article the reader maybe have been unaware of the major responsibilities that women had to take on within the home, that ensured the survival of their family. Bradbury makes the interesting point that if families were not dependant on a wage a women may have sent her clothes out to be washed, not subjecting herself to the hard labour this task involved such strain from lifting, burns from scolding water, and caustic substances (184). Women may also not have been concerned with sewing and mending because if they was not dependant on a wage she could buy new. Children who were not of age to work (mostly female) would help their mother with these tasks, in tern learning skills to earn money later on. Although, needing to work took children out of school which was controversial in some cities