English Versus Japanese Female Mill Workers: Connected Through History

| English Versus Japanese Female Mill Workers: Connected Through History | | | Evie PyleWorld History16 November 2012Period 2 | “My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it’s very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself and do whatever she needs to.” ~Ani DiFranco |

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Throughout the innovation of the factory, the most important characteristic was efficiency; producing as much as possible, as fast as possible. Because of the need for employees in the factories, owners began employing women, two examples being in England and Japan. Men in control, low wages, responsibilities for families, ages of employees, long working hours, and the horrific working conditions, were common in both societies. Despite being on opposite sides of the hemisphere, both groups of women were segregated in unfair experiences. Prior to answering a research question, one must question different aspects of the topic. The original document based question was: How were the experiences of Female Mill Workers in England and Japan similar? In order to begin thinking about the topic, subconsciously, one asks themselves deeper questions. Who ruled over these women? What kept these women from fighting for their rights? How did the women differ in age? Asking these questions helped me to genuinely understand the topic of the document based question, and in more depth. The main sources I looked at were statistical sources from both England and Japan. In addition, some sources I found were original documents of young women in the time period. Asking myself these questions and finding accurate sources helped me to develop my paper in a significant way. Significance can be measured on both the uniqueness and the similarities of the groups of women in England and Japan. The main factories in England were in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Somerset, and Derbyshire. Around the 1800s, on average, 79.7% of the English mill workers were women. 57% of these women were over

Bibliography: Brady, Charles and Phil Roden, eds. The DBQ Project. Evanston, Illinois –The DBQ Project, 2010. This source pointed out clear differences and similarities through the map given Lithograph of Samuel Slater designed power-loom weaving mill, circa, 1840, in Norman Longmate, The Hungry Mills, London: Temple Smith, 1978. This source helped me to understand the life of an English female mill worker Photo, circa 1910, in Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. James L. McClain, Japan: A Modern History, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. This source helped me to see the rate women versus men were paid Mikoso Hane, Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts: The underside of Modern Japan, New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. From this source, I found that all the money earned by the women, for the most part, went to the families of the women First Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, 1835, in Neil McKendrick editor, Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society, London: Europa Publishers, 1974. [ 1 ]. Brady, Charles and Phil Roden, eds. The DBQ Project. Evanston, Illinois –The DBQ Project, 2010. [ 2 ]. Adapted from D.C. Coleman, Courtaulds: An Economic History, Oxford Press, 1969. [ 12 ]. Mikoso Hane, Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts: The underside of Modern Japan, New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. [ 13 ]. First Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, 1835, in Neil McKendrick editor, Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society, London: Europa Publishers, 1974. [ 14 ]. James L. McClain, Japan: A Modern History, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. [ 15 ]. Mikoso Hane, Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts: The underside of Modern Japan, New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. [ 16 ]. Douglas A. Galbi, “Through Eyes in the Storm,” Social History, Vol. 21, No. 2, May, 1966. [ 19 ]. Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Factory Inquiry Commission, 1st Report, in Victorian Women, Stanford University Press, 1981. [ 24 ]. Mikoso Hane, Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts: The underside of Modern Japan, New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. [ 25 ]. Brady, Charles and Phil Roden, eds. The DBQ Project. Evanston, Illinois –The DBQ Project, 2010.