Women In The Early Industrial Revolution

Women in the early Industrial Revolution were commonly associated with domestic duties such as housekeeping, child rearing and nurturing, and household management. However, Industrialization helped create new modes of employment that allowed many young women to earn enough to marry o to support themselves independently. These new methods of work did present a lower skill set needed to work in them. Textile production was the starting point of the Industrial Revolution. Women and their labor were deeply involved. They were used because the tasks of spinning and weaving were considered a part of the domestic industries. Tasks such as those were virtually occupied by women. However, when those functions were performed by factory machines, the …show more content…
What education was available was significantly inferior to that of men. Most education for women was of domestic careers that they were expected to follow. University and professional education were reserved for men until the third quarter of the century. Educated men feared the competition of women. Most nations did not allow women to enter the professions such as lawyers until after World War Two. At that time, women could attend professional schools and medical schools. However, those who went to the universities and professional schools were branded political radicals. Elementary school teaching was considered a domestic duty since it involved young children. This opportunity provided women with employment outside of the internal responsibilities of the house. Women who tried to become pioneers and allow women to practice the professions that men could do faced obstacles, personal humiliation, and …show more content…
A vast movement to promote and achieve this quality was feminism, and it swept throughout Europe. Some women were motivated by their class and economic interests while others had political priorities. The liberal society and laws not only provided obstacles for feminism, but it gave them political and intellectual tools to support the movement. Europes most advanced feminist movement occurred in Great Britain. Millicent Fawcett led the moderate National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Fawcett believed parliament would grant them the right to vote if they could convince them that women would act respectable and responsible in their political