Effects of Economic Change on Women Workers - Assignment Example

Introduction: The industrial revolution in Britain is understood in two phases, which overlap industrialization. The revolution occurred to alter the economy positively in all aspects radically. However, the term industrialization was abandoned because it was inherently suggested to have taken place for a very short time. The two phases took roughly a hundred and fifty years. These phases were proto-industrialization and industrialization. The first phase was surge of outwork and handicrafts in homes, while industrialization of capital and railways in the 1830s onwards marked the second phase. Both phases provided empowerment for women altering their roles in their workplace and at home, sometimes restricting opportunity (Noung, Para1). Effects of economic change on women workers in Britain between 1750 and 1950 The first phase of industrialization, the outwork, involved the production of goods for home use and for export through the merchants who fed the local and outside markets with the goods. The families never hesitated to squeeze themselves, if it called for, due to the flexibility of the system even though there were frustrations placed on their leisure time by out putting merchants. During this era, the women played a very important economic role since all the members of a household knew how to operate a spinning machine, meaning that together they contributed to the household economy. Therefore, this phase empowered women by making them agents of production and not just consumption (Floud, p25). This development in the production sector was important due to the agricultural trends, which were extant since 1700. This was due to the economics of scales that proprietors were employing. Large farms were able to operate with few workers hence released much labour from the lands driving women out of the labour market. These could be associated with the fact that men still dominated social and economic sectors during this period. As their wages started going down, they sought to exclude women from the labour market to prevent further immiseration. Hence, women from the agricultural region had to seek employment at home. This exclusion of women came with some side effects to the farmers who were their employers. Most noticeable and comical was the violent clashes between well-organized groups of women gleaners and the farmers. They would invade their farms to collect leftovers after harvesting. As the farmers tried to limit this, they developed a stricter notion of property rights in the eighteenth century. The farmers worn the civil case but the local customary law pull-ranked it as the judiciary were unsympathetic towards the ruling, hence the women continued to glean. This left each group at the risk of assailment; farmers assaulted the women and the women assaulted the farmers severally. Therefore, with the decline of opportunities for rural employments, women had to find something useful relevant to their time and their families. This led to the birth of consumer revolution. The consumer revolution emanated from the increased participation of women in the outwork sector that delivered money rather than goods as agriculture often did. The women’s purchasing power increased leading to the proliferation of new goods and services that people thought were of women nature such as decorations, cookery among others. In the period between 1785 and 1800, women were notably becoming a worse deal. A middle age woman in 1820 was likely to be more underfed and illiterate as compared to her sister in 1780. Families had tough decisions to make about who was to get money for food and education, for women could not get a return for their labour. During the second phase of industrialization, the factory became the focal point of production for the focus shifted to capital. This phase mostly saw the shift of the male-breadwinner model as women could find work in the factories, which they did in large numbers. Men got family wage that was sufficient for them and their dependents and the domestic sphere was increasingly preoccupied and dominated by women. The working-class women gained complete control of financial strategies and purchasing decisions and became the focus of the household. In other families, abusive fathers ill-treated their dependents and insisted on holding onto their wages. Women were barred from having power and attention in the workforce. The embourgeoisment of the work force indicated indecency for a man’s wife to take a job. This resulted to decline in birth rates towards the 19th century, as families could not afford to take care of additional dependants than a family wage could feed. The women in the pre industrial societies were fraught by the constant demand of child rearing due to emotional and physical risks involved. The demographic transition and medical improvements assisted the British women to become the first group to liberate themselves from this burden. The effects of the two world wars on women workers in Britain between 1750 and 1950 The participation of women in the two world wars of the twentieth century was crucial for the wars’ outcome, though the attitudes towards their contribution were paternalistic. Their involvement changed the social status and the working lives of women from that point onwards. Before the First World War, the women’s role in the society was confined to the domestic sphere and specific kinds of jobs. In Great Britain, just before the First World War, out of an adult population of about 24million women, approximately 1.7million worked in domestic service, 800,000 in textile manufacturing industry, 600,000 in clothing trades, 500,000 in commerce and 260,000 in local and national government. The British textile and clothing trades in particular employed far more women than men and were referred to as women’s jobs. While some women managed to receive a tertiary education, others were expected to be involved in home duties and women’s work. Before 1914, only a few countries like Australia, New Zealand and the Scandinavian nations had given women a right to vote and to be involved in political processes. The World Wars I and II hinged a lot of industrial production just as they did in the battlefield clashes (Roberts, p120-130). During both World Wars I and II, there was a severe shortage of labour in a range of industries from rural and farm work to city office jobs due to millions of men being away fighting and inevitable atrocious casualties. Women were therefore called upon in jobs by stipulation to take on roles that were outside their traditional gender expectations. In Great Britain, they referred to this as a process of dilution. The trade unions especially in engineering and ship building industries fought it strongly. For the durations of both the wars’, women took the jobs that were regarded as skilled jobs traditionally, meaning men’s work. However, women undertaking jobs covered by the dilution agreement lost their jobs at the end of the First World War in accordance with the agreement negotiated with the trade unions. Thousands of women worked in large hangars that were used to build aircrafts and offices in weapons factories during the First World War. They also did knitting, provided hampers for soldiers on the front and other voluntary work. On the other hand, for survival, women had to work for paid employment to take care of their families. These women did not only keep the fire burning in their homes, but also proved that they were highly capable in diverse fields. This expanded the view of the role of women in society and changed the outlook of women’s ability and their place in the workforce. However, the extent of this change is open to historical debate (Burnette, Para2-4) For women to be at the front and experience the war, nursing was their only way of contribution. This made nursing a women job, which they have dominated to date. In Britain, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, Queen Alexandras Royal Army Nursing Corps and Voluntary Aid Detachment were all formed before World War I. The Voluntary Aid Detachment did not get the permit to the front line until 1915 (Braybon, p45-55). The role of women tended to differ in scope and importance between World War I and World War II. Many women worked as volunteers serving at the Red Cross and encouraging the sale of bonds and the planting of victory gardens. In part because of female participation in the war effort, Canada, the USA, Great Britain and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women in the years after the First World War. Women were encouraged to join female branches of the armed forces and participate in industrial or farm work in many linked countries. Many women could now give in to paid and voluntary employment due to expanded horizon of opportunity, confidence and the extended skill base. Women’s roles in World War II were hence more extensive than in the First World War. By 1945, more than 2.2 million women in the U.S. were working in the war industries where they built vehicles, ships, aircraft and weaponry. Women also worked in factories, munitions plants and farms, drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously preserved for men. In the allied countries, thousands joined defensive militias at home and there was a great increase in the number of women serving in the military. Thousands of other women enlisted as nurses serving on the front lines. Several hundred thousand women served in combat roles, especially in anti-aircraft units and in infantry units. The U.S. decided not to use women in combat because public opinion would not tolerate it (Braybon, 2000). The nature of the war heightened the necessity to use the skills and the time of women. World War II involved global conflict on an exceptional scale against certain aggressors as opposed to the World War I, which was arguably without clear aggressor or villain. There was therefore an absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population hence expanding the role of women inevitably. The figure of Rosie, the Riveter, symbolized the hard skilled labour of women in the United States. Many women served in the resistances of Italy, France and Poland and in the British Special Operations Executive, which aided these. In 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt made a goodwill tour to the Great Britain where she had an interview with a woman machinist and gathered the following: In Britain, women were essential to the war effort in both civilian and military roles. The contribution by civilian men and women to the British war effort was acknowledged with the use of the words ‘Home Front’. They used these words to describe the battles fought on a domestic level with rationing, recycling and war work such as in munitions factories and farms. Thus, they released men into the military. Governments drafted women by assigning them non-combat jobs in the military, the Womens Royal Naval Service and the Auxiliary Territorial Service. This drafting never happened to the British women for they could volunteer for combat duty in anti-aircraft units, which shot down German planes and V-1 missiles. There was recruitment of women in the auxiliary services such as the Air Transport Auxiliary. Civilian women engaged in high-danger roles as secret agents through the Special Operations Executive and underground radio operators in Nazi occupied Europe (Thom, 1989). Conclusion The economic change and the two World Wars changed the patterns of rural employment and gender ideologies. They offered women opportunities to show their high capability in diverse fields. This expanded the view of the role of women in society and changed the outlook of women’s ability and their place in the workforce. It also bridged the gap between female and male spheres reducing dominancy of males in some fields and vice-versa. Works cited Braybon, G. Women Workers in the First World War ,(1989) Braybon, G. and P. Summerfield, Out of the Cage: Women’s Experiences in Two World Wars 1987) Part One, (1990) Burnette, J. Gender, Work and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain, Indiana: Wabash College, (2008) retrieved on April 28, 2009 from:http://www.cambridge.org Floud, R., McCloskey D. (Eds.), The Economic History of Britain since 1700. Vol. 2 1860 to the 1970s (1981) Impact of the Industrial Revolution. (2003), retrieved on April 28, 2009 from:http://industrialrevolution.sea.ca/index.html Langhamer, C. Women’s Leisure in England, 1920-1960, (2000) Matthews, R. C. 0., Feinstein C. H. and J. C. Odling-Smee, British Economic Growth 1856-1973, (1982) Noung, Women and the industrial revolution. (2005), retrieved on April 28, 2009 from:http://everything2.com Roberts, E. Womens Work 1840-1940, (1988). The Effects of the Industrial Revolution Today, (2007), retrieved on April 28, 2009 from:http://industrialrevolution.sea.ca/impact.html- Thom, D. ‘Women and work in wartime Britain’ in Wall, R. and Winter, J.(eds.) The Upheaval of War (1989) Read More