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Stephen Kang

Period 1
3-5/03
Compare and contrast the roles of British working women in the preindustrial economy)
before 1750) with their roles in the era 1850-1920. (AP Question #3, 1998)
Women in the time period before 1750 to 1920 faced many changes that gave
them more rights and job opportunities. In the early eighteenth century, women had
practically no rights whatsoever, always obeying the command of men. One of the most
common occupations would be something that is somehow interacted with the fields of
domestic work. As time progressed onto the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many
things for women changed. In the era between 1850-1920, women inherited much more
rights such as having control over their own money and property. Also beginning in 1914,
women tackled the jobs, which had been held mostly by men because there was a
shortage in labor since men were being called into the military for World War I. This
opened up a door to a whole new world for both the sex. Women could now work the
jobs they dreamed about, and men were now able to work side by side with women,
although there were those who rejected this. Women were now working in offices and
even holding positions in the government. This was mainly due to their hard work and
suffering and then received the right to vote as soon as WWI was over (1918).
I. Preindustrial economy (before 1750)
A. Average wome.. -011"
1. Women's marria~,",
a. Purpose of marrying was to provide husband respect and children
i. Wife obeyed and labored as the husband commanded
ii. Poor women gave birth every 24-30 months
iii. Rich women gave birth as often as every year
b. Women's only inheritance from father was dowry, which can be
clothing, jewelry, investments, and even land.
c. Women could not marry without a dowry
2. Rural women
a. Their average daily work was...
i. cook
ii. spin and weave
iii. garden
iv. make candles and soaps
v. brew
vi. take care of cows and chickens
vii. milk the cows
viii. make cheese
ix. gather eggs

x. salt the meat and preserve it


xi. help with harvesting
xii. raise silkworms
b. Men would ...
i. tend draft animals
ii. raise buildings
iii. repair and build fences
iv. craft and maintain tools
v. slaughtered animals
3. Urban women
a. Their average daily work was ...
i. work with husband in craft or trade
ii. weaving; cleaned, carded, and spun
iii. metal trades; polished and finished
iv. wet-nurses
4. Domestic work
a. Housewife was expected to ...
i. cook and dean
ii. spin and weave
iii. care for children and servants
iv. purchase and store supplies
v. entertain guests
vi. tend the ill
b. Women were responsible to ...
i. teach her children the basic knowledge of his or her own
society and culture
ii. received religious and moral values
5. Common Jobs
a. Wet-nurses
i. Wet nurses are a nurse who suckles a child
b. Maids
i. Maids had an unending routine of...

baby-sitting

shopping

cooking

cleaning

c. Domestic servants
i. Young girls would be dispatched from family to be a servant
One out of every three girls between the ages of fifteen
and twenty was a servant
d. Midwives
i. Midwives are usually women who assist other women in
childbirth

e. Prostitutes
i. Although there were not as many (compared with 19th_20th
centuries), it was still common
B. Separation of role by gender
1. Women
a. Women and children ...
i. worked in the kitchen
ii. did housework
2. Men
a. Men worked in the fields
II. Era of 1850-1920
A. 1850-1914
1. Women were now working but were paid less than men
2. Newer jobs
a. Number of school teachers increased dramatically
b. Women found jobs as...
i. department store clerks
ii. stenographers
iii. secretaries
number of secretaries increased twelve times in 1910
compared to 1890.
post office and government clerical positions went from
8% (1861) to more than 50% (1911)
c. Large numbers of women left domestic service to work in ...
i. industry
ii. transportation
iii. offices
d. Cafes and restaurants employed thousands of women
e. Women became highly visible as...
i. bank tellers
ii. mail c:arriers
iii. police officers
f. Piece work
i. Piece work was a variety of wage labour in which workers are
paid per unit of production instead of by labor time
This was possible with the invention of seweing
machine
3. Other Jobs
a. Prostitutes were found all over Europe
b. Nursing gradually became a respected profession
c. Domestic work was still common
d. Servants and maids still existed
I

4. English Women's Rights Movement


a. Mary WoJlstonecraft
i. Was the first women feminist
ii. Tried to get more social equality for women
iii. Published Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
b. Harriet Martineau
i. Held progressive views on the education of girls
ii. Published On Female Education (1832)
c. Jane Austin
i. English novelist
ii. Fought for more equality for women through her novels
d. Emmeline Pankhurst
i. Fought for women suffrage
ii. Created the Women's Social and Political Union in Manchester
iii. Had three daughters (Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela) who helped
e. Sanger
i. Believed in birth control
ii. Was for women having control over their bodies
B. 1914-1920
1. Many women began doing industrial work that previously had been done only

by men due to labor shortage developed as many men were called to serve

in the military (WWI 1914-1918)


a. In 1918, women received the right to vote
III. Differences between preindustrial era (before 1750) and 1850-1920 era
A. Women's role (preindustrial era)
1. Many women lived in the rural area
2. Wet-nurses were hired everywhere
3. number of maids and servants were incredibly high
a. A third of all girls between the ages fifteen to twenty was a servant
4. Women lived in a patriarchal society
5. Women were inferior to men
B. Women's role (1850-1920 era)
1. Education
a. Increase In literacy and education
i. In 1880, British Parliament passed law that required all children
must attend school up to age ten
b. Family size decreased
2. There was now, a decline in inferiority
3. Women now received higher wages
4. There is now more equality among men and women
5. Many more jobs and opportunities were open for women
a. Many became secretaries

-'

i.

the number employed as secretaries increased twelve times


within a twenty year period (1890-1910)
b. Women held jobs at offices and government
c. Department stores were now rising and women held jobs there
d. Cafes and restaurants
i. thousands were employed here
e. Women became bank teller with banks constantly being opened
f. There were at few temale police officers
g. Nurse as becoming a respected job
i. Actual female nurses were at the battlefields helping
the wounded
6. Piece work
a. Piece work was a variety of wage labour in which workers are paid
per unit of production instead of by labor time.
i. This was possible with the invention of seweing machine
7. Women received much more rights
a. Women or men could now divorce if wife or husband committed
adultery without separate act of Parliament (Divorce Act 1857)
b. Women now had the control over their earnings (1878)
c. Women now had the control over their property (1882)
d. Women began to enter Oxford and Cambridge (1870s)
e. Women got the right to vote due to their hard work during WWI while
men were fighting (1918)
IV. Similarities between preindustrial era (before 1750) and 1850-1920 era
A. Women's role
1. Majority of the women married
2. The common jobs
a. Domestic work
i. weaving and spinning
ii. shoPlPing for supplies
iii. anything else necessary to run a house
b. Prostitute
i. Not as common before 1750 compared with 1850-1920
c. Domestic Servants
d. Maids
e. Work in the rural
It is evident that a period of 100 to 150 years brought upon one of the biggest
change of a women's life. Many rural women would move into the big and growing cities
to attempt life there. These women would now work the same or at least similar jobs that
men worked. Newer jobs included jobs in offices and government. Other newer jobs
included jobs involving anything that was rising such as department stores. Even with

these new changes, some jobs still remained common such as domestic servants,
maids, and prostitutes. The biggest cause that led to women equality was VMlI, which
gave an opportunity for the women to show the world that they were capable of doing a
man's job.

Works Citied
McKay, John P. A History of Western Society, Fifth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1995
Merriman, John A History of Modem Europe, First Edition. W.W. Norton & Company,
1996
Smith, Bonnie G. Changing Uves. D.C. Heath and Company, 1989
Anderson, Bonnie S. and Zinsser, Judith P. A History of their Own, Volume II. Harper &
Row, Publishers. 1989

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