Preview

How Did African American Women Start In The 1800s

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
662 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did African American Women Start In The 1800s
As the industrial growth started in the 1800s many factory owners began to hire women. Majority of the women who worked in the factories were poor, young, unmarried or widows, women of the middle-class were privileged to stay at home to provide their domestic duties. Women were paid lower then men due to women were subordinate to them., it did not matter what kind of quality the women produced. Any income women received legally belonged to their husbands and with that status employers were able to keep women’s wages low. Eventually women created labor associations because they wanted to sort issues out such as the terrible working conditions, low pay, and longer hours. The Female Labor Reform met once a week to discuss conditions that needed to be improved. Even though they were doubted by many that they would not make any difference and would not be listened to, they never gave up. …show more content…
Prudence Crandall tried to open a school for young girls that were African American and white but the public did not welcome this idea. Prudence was put on trial for breaking the local laws in particular the one limiting education for African American students. Unfortunately she had to stop her plans for opening the school due to repeated badgering of her students and people trying to burn the school down. Also for African American families it was hard for husbands to support their families due to racism. They were not paid as much as white men and there were immigrants that worked for a much lower wage which made it easier to not pay them as much. Due to this African Americans would not be able to obtain a middle-class

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Womens History Lit Review

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A fresh, personal, bottom-up approach to the women’s labor movement in the early 20th century…

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Traditional works days were 12-14 hours long and the working condition were terrible. The work itself was arduous however they did not receive the respective compensation. Women were exploited for cheap labor and were paid unfairly, often getting paid a meager 8 dollars a week. Many didn’t know what their wages were and succumb to accept anything that was given to aid their families: “At present, no consumer however enlightened and conscientious can know the varying wages paid” (Florence Kelly, Journal of the Political Economy). Florence Kelley believe women had to get paid an adequate wages as they had children to look…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    These men now had to work alongside the women who began doing these jobs during the war and at first their attitudes towards these women created problems in the work place. The men responded with harassment and discrimination toward the women. Sexual harassment directed toward women from men was commonplace. And even though women outnumbered the men in the labor force three to one they still had problems with the new idea of women as wage laborers. Male employees and male-controlled unions were suspicious of women. Companies saw women’s needs and desires on the job as secondary to men’s, so they were not taken seriously. Also, employers denied women positions of power excluding them from any kind of decision-making process of the company. Women wanted to be treated like the male workers and not given special consideration just because they were women. As time went on and more and more women entered the workforce, the attitudes towards women workers changed. Employers actually began to praise them. It was then that employers were more willing to let women do the work previously done by…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    The role of women in American society changed from the traditional homemaker to modern-day breadwinners owing to the outcomes of various events that occurred from the end of the Civil War in 1865. However, this paper will analyze and discuss the various events such as suffrage, the professional barrier held by the male counterparts, and societal discrimination. In addition, the enactment of State laws that illegalized wife battery, equal payment, in addition to the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Belva Lockwood to be the first women to testify before it in 1879. These events formed the basis of the significant events that shaped the make-up of the modern women since 1985.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1800’s, African-Americans were highly discriminated against. There were still many blacks that worked for their white masters as slaves. Most women did not receive education. African-Americans were given a free education until they finished elementary school. Prudence Crandall’s greatest accomplishment was founding the first school for African-American girls. By doing this, she impacted the lives of the African-American girls who attended her school, the people of Canterbury, Connecticut, and the school system.…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Factory Reform in Britain

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Firstly, in Britain, the mistreatment of women particularly in factories helped reform to start taking place. Women (and children) were used for fundamental jobs in textiles factories which involved manoeuvring into places that men could not manoeuvre into. Women often had to work very close to running machines, and since there were no machine monitors at this time, several accidents occurred. Despite the fact that they were considered to be vital to factory production, word soon spread about the dangers these women had to face in factories.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women started to work more jobs after the Civil War was over. They were treated unequally and were not paid the same as men. This caused labor unions to start forming for all the women who were entering the workforce. The Knights of Labor was a labor union from the 1880s that supported equal pay for equal work. Men had a higher minimum wage than women and with more and more women starting to work, equal pay was a outstanding issue. Even now, equal pay is a prominent issue that is being dealt with.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 18th and 19th centuries, though facing difficulties from white oppressors, African American women were taking action by contributing their help and skills in the United States. Women dealt with the separation from their families, working in the fields with their infant children and sexual exploitation from their masters. As the cruel years past for the African American, women would find ways through creativity, abolition and community building to shape the way for America in years to come.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the late 1800s and mid-1900s, women and women's associations not just attempted to pick up the privilege to vote, they likewise worked for wide based financial and political equality and for social changes. Somewhere around 1880 and 1910, the quantity of women utilized in the United States expanded from 2.6 million to 7.8 million. Despite the fact that women started to be utilized in business and industry, the greater part of better paying positions kept on going to men. When the new century rolled over, 60 percent of every single working woman was utilized as residential hirelings. In the region of governmental issues, women picked up the privilege to control their income, own property, and, on account of separation, take care of their…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women in the Workforce

    • 2052 Words
    • 9 Pages

    If it was not for the women’s movements, the rights that women have today might not be so. It has taken 162 years from the present time, 2010, to when the fight for women rights began in 1848 (Imbornoni, Time Line 1, 2009). Much has happened in this long time frame and changes are still occurring today. To show how women have worked for the rights they have now, in all aspects, the workforce still needs much revision to make it equal for both men and women. This all began in 1848 at the first women’s convention was held (Imbornoni, Time Line 1, 2009).…

    • 2052 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Women, which is half of the population, were always expected to become a housewife and not to work. They were expected to stay home and take care of the children and clean the house as well as go to different social gatherings in the neighborhood. Women were expected to always travel together or at least in the presence of another man, but never alone. So when women entered the workforce in world war two to fill the gap that men left when going to war there was much conflict. The image of the power of women was put behind “Rosie the Riveter” and women slowly became able to stay in the workforce. However, They were not payed as much as men and even in today’s society that is still…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women in the Workforce

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Through history women have fought a long standing battle for equality in the workforce. There was a time that women could only do very specific gendered work for a lower wage. It was expected that women run the house, raise the kids and men went to work. Times have changed as women have fought to gain independence and equality and the right to choose what they want to do with their lives. The use of women in the workforce really began to change during World War II. For the first time women were pulled from the home and placed in factories as front line workers and given the responsibility of a man’s job and were still expected to run the home. According to the web site Holding the Line, World War II proved to be the catalyst that opened new doors for women and eventually changed the way women were regarded as a viable workforce. For the first time women left the "traditional jobs" and accomplished job tasks previously believed to be beyond their capabilities. The drastic reduction of available manpower coupled with the dire need for factory workers resulted in females being placed in physically demanding roles. The hard work, dedication and skill with which these women preformed these jobs paved the way for other. (Cambell 1999) Women have come a long way but have many more hurdles to overcome to gain true equality to men. Some examples of these hurdles are; equal pay for equal work, equal rights politically and socially.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Equality for Women

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the early 19th century, "married women could not sign contracts; they had no title to their own earnings to properties, even when it was their own inheritance or dowry... "(Flexner 7). Women had no rights and their place was in the home. They were expected to be subservient to their husbands. If a woman were outspoken, she was looked down upon. The first type of organization that women had were in their sewing circles- "Sporadic and incidental as these efforts were, they were the first instances we know of American Women working together towards a specified and - in other words, organizing" (13).…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Equal Rights

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    For hundreds of years women have fought to have equal rights in the workplace. First, it was not uncommon for a woman to be a prisoner in her own home. The man of the house was the one who brought all the income home and the woman took care of the all the cooking, cleaning, and tending to the children. This was the tradition of American women; it was the way that daughters were being raised, with the understanding that bearing children and being in charge of the household was their primary role in life. As time changed women would begin to thrive for something more challenging and career minded then their late ancestors.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How Our World Is Changing

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960 's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays