Genteel Women In The Factories Analysis

“Genteel Women in the Factories” Reflection During the Industrial Revolution, many advances were being made in textile factories. New technology in machinery such as the cotton-gin or spinning-jenny were being invented to increase production. This decreased the need for agricultural labor, forcing farmers to move into the city to find work in the factories. The types of people to work in these factories were known as the working-class. Employers began to see that they could hire women and children and pay them less. The working conditions in these factories were not pleasant and the work was hard for the women. “Genteel Women in the Factories” reveals the hardships for women working in the factories and how they handled their way of living. The working conditions for the women in the factories were very unpleasant as was life at that time. Naomi Loughnan states, “Dust clouds, filled with unwelcome life, find a resting-place in out lungs.” Dust and soot in their lungs and on their bodies were not the only concerns. Their muscles ached from the long twelve-hour days with not many breaks. They became covered in black soot oozing from the machines. The machines they dealt with were
Naomi Loughnan tells us, “It was being suggested that women could do their work equally as well, given equal conditions of training—this undercurrent of jealousy rises to the surface rather often.” Back then women were supposed to take care of the household and the men provided for their families. Now that women were being hired over men because they could be paid less, the men were being stripped of their duty as men and hurt their masculinity which caused tension in the workplace. Since this was a problem, the women knew to do what they were told and not use their brains so the men would treat them nicely (Loughnan,