How Did The Industrial Revolution Changed The Economic Landscape Of America

The industrial revolution changed the economic landscape of America and the rest of the world. This economic change had direct impact of the social lives of the people living in that time and an indirect impact on sexuality. When the industrial revolution was just starting and the factories were being set-up, a lot more young women were now able to get jobs in textile industries and such, which they didn’t have the opportunity to get before. Even though the wages were not very high, working and earning for oneself instills sort of independence that women in America in the 18th century did not experience. But as the industrial revolution caught pace and the women workers started getting replaced by machine and men strong enough to work those
It was their priority to impart onto their kids good morals and ethics. The women, who didn’t have jobs anymore, took their moral responsibilities at home and applied it to the country in whole. Since they didn’t have paying jobs, they joined organizations and were an important part in many social reforms inacted in the 19th century. They worked to get the mentally ill in assylums, they were a strong voice in the abolition movement and were probably most responsible for the prohibition of alcohol. The industrial revolution started giving women more space and time to practice their freedom and experience independence. This may not affect the “sexual” part of the whole concept of sexuality, but it did a lot to question the gender roles that was defined for the women then, and helped in changing
Up until 1919, “Under the legal principle of coverture, husbands held authority over the person, property and choices of their wives.”(Youtube) Considering that the owning property was a pre-requisite for voting, women were essentially not allowed to vote and were in a way shut off from the political process of the time. Since sexuality is basically a socially constructed, a vital tool for that construction is government and the policies they make. Until 1919, one half of the ‘sex’ had literally no power when it came to politics. The 19th amendment not only gave the other half of the population their due say in the matter of social policies, but it also established equality among the two sexes, at least in law. It is weird to consider that one sex was legally considered less than the other since the declaration of independence in 1776, and nothing was done about it till 1919. Women getting the power to vote not only gave them chance to shape society through politics, but it also gave a lot of women more confidence and the chance to be independent, something they didn’t have before because they couldn’t legally own