Industrial Revolution: Women's Impact On The Family

Impact upon the Family Most families were rural, large, and self-sustaining; they produced and processed almost everything that was needed for their own support and for trading in the marketplace, while at the same time performing a host of other functions ranging from mutual protection to entertainment. (Cowan) We then start to see the shift of the family not being as much of importance. We see with the introductions of the mills and textiles, the family shifts away from production. They are moving into the urban areas and becoming small. Men start looking at women in a different light when it comes to marriage. Marriage was most often a business partnership in which husband and wife worked together in their joint interest. (Pinchbeck) Men just weren’t looking for a wife, they were looking for someone to work with for their best interest. It was almost expected that women would become wage earners. We also see that the children are throw in the mix as a mean to bring money to the family. The family starts to see a slip in morals. Because of the long hours of work we start to see the family not going to church and pull the kids from school.
Role of Women
Women have always played a part in productive work. The role of women during the Industrial Revolution was one of seeing them go from doing the work and receiving no pay to moving into the work force doing those same jobs to be paid. Women that had worked beside their husbands and fathers for so long that they were looked at like they were an assistant. That factor would play a role in the wages that they would receive. That is where the inequalities can be seen. Home life suffered as women were faced with the double burden of factory work followed by domestic chores and child care. (Reese) We would see women working in the textile mills, as miners, and as seamstresses in home based