1. “The growth of the female labor force was an important part of this development, and flew in the face of the still-strong presumption that women belonged exclusively in their homes” (Page 283). Things began to change once there was a growth in jobs and the introduction of better things for women. “Domestic service” was what really helped women out, because they worked in sweat shops and even office work (Page 283). In fact as years went by more women became more active in the labor force. This did however cause a conflict between the different groups or classes of people. For example, white women did different jobs from African Americans. Southern black women were more involved in the agricultural jobs, earning lower wages. Most of the women working were not married, but were to work enough to make their own money, and then get married. The middle and upper class women had enough money to have their own servants to do the domestic jobs. The working class was just women trying to make a little bit of extra money, and grow to be independent.
2. The two images are very interesting. The one on the left looks like two little Native American girls, not from a family who has too much money. The picture on the right looks like the native girls are from an upper class family because they are better dressed and groomed. However it looks like the little girls on the right side are more Americanized, they are not wearing their traditional clothing or anything. Therefore, one picture shows how natives were, and what they became after the “Americanization”.
Textbook:
1. Bessie Van Vorst experiences different thing sin the factory. She shows how it is a difficult and tiresome job “Bessie explored how different it felt to work for a present daily wage and to work for payment by the piece-an arrangement that led workers to drive them to work faster” (Page 311). She described the difficult things they had to go while working at these jobs, and how it changed her. She meets different girls while working at the factory, everyone with a different personality. “Bessie came to appreciate the generosity of her coworkers, the pleasures of collective work, and the “practical, progressive” democracy of working-class life” (Page 312).
2. Van Vorst definitely thinks that things are much easier on men than they are for women. Since men were actually paid more than women, I guess that made a big difference too. I think women overall were just very excited to finally be able to hold jobs and make any money at all. She talks about how men were treated better than the women. She talks about three separate women as the breadwinner, the semi-breadwinner and those who live a comfortable luxurious life. I just think that women were fairly grateful, despite the differences and were happy to have a job. The men had to work to put food on the table, and the women worked for other reasons. Whatever the reason was, I think that it is hard to say if women should or not stand up for themselves because just owning a job was such a advantage for them.
7 comments:
PR # 1
Hi Lusine!
1. I read your Blog 8 and I agree with you on the first answer. I agree that there was a significant development in working class women’s wage labor in the late nineteenth century because of the shift out of women workers to domestic services, manufacturing, and office work. I also agree that “The middle and upper class women had enough money to have their own servants to do the domestic jobs” (your words). I guess what you meant with this statement is that these development in women’s wage labor didn’t affect women of elite status and many middle class women because they lived in luxury, they did not need to work, they had servants to do their jobs, and they just loved shopping. I agree with that. However, I would just add that there also were a small number of middle class women who would choose to work to have more financial freedom and to be able to spend more money on them by buying new clothes. So, I think that the development in women’s wage labor affected the middle class, too.
2. I disagree with the first point that you make. I think these pictures have nothing to do with having no money vs. having more money. I agree with your second point. I think that these pictures show the lifestyle differences of Native American girls before and after Americanization. However, I think that the importance of these pictures is the sadness on the faces of these Native American girls in both of these pictures. I think it shows that even though the lifestyles of the Native American women had improved due to the Americanization, the Native American people weren’t happy about the western consolidation because their land and their distinctiveness were taken from them.
Textbook document ( Chapter 5 pp. 311-316) – “The Woman Who Toils,” and “The Woman Who Toils: Being the Experiences of Two Ladies as Factory Girls”
1. About the first question of the textbook document, I like how you write about the difficulties that women had working in factory. When it comes to the question about the different sorts of women that Bessie Van Vorst met in the factory, these women were the bread winners, the semi bread-winners, the women who worked for luxuries. The responses of these women to their work varied because they were women of different classes. These different sorts of women worked for different purposes: some worked to support their families, some worked for their own pleasure, and some worked for luxuries.
2. I really liked your answer to this last question. I think the same way as you about this question. It is true that Van Vorst concludes that working women are passive in accepting their working conditions and unwilling to stand up for themselves in the way of working men because of the different motivations of women from different classes. I agree with her. I also think that the division of the work incentives of different class of women pushes them to accept their work conditions and not to stand up for themselves. However, you brought up some good points that had never crossed my mind about the working women who were unwilling to stand up for themselves. I like the point that you make about these women by saying “I just think that women were fairly grateful, despite the differences and were happy to have a job” (copied from your blog).
Overall, I think you did a great job and I enjoyed reading and commenting on your blog.
Sirun
PR #1
Q1. I do agree that during the nineteenth century, the new job opportunities allowed women to slowly move outside the household and into the workforce. Women no longer had to depend on a man’s wealth in order to be financially stable. Women were now able to support their own families by doing everything from factory to office work. Although many more job opportunities were available among women I do agree that there were conflicts among different classes of women. Women that were middleclass were affected because they now used lower- class women to work under them. Women of higher-class were able to gain their own money easily. Working- class women usually had to work in fields or have jobs that required more labor in order to gain more money.
Q2. Lusine I agree with your interpretation of the images. One side is an example of girls that are dressed in normal Native American attire, where as the opposite pages shows women that are dressed outside of their native attire. I feel that this is an example of the influence that American oppressed on Native People. Prior to the invasion of Americans, American clothing were strange to Native Americans. Americans made Native Americans feel that their clothing were not
Reading Question:
Q1. By working around other women it gave Bessie the opportunity to discover and meet different types of people. She came across many type of women, higher-class, middle-class, working class. I feel that although all of the women came to work and earn money, they did vary in the reasons why they needed the money. For example the semi- bread winner was a woman who supported her family, whereas higher class women did not depend on their wages and just worked for themselves. Lastly women like the bread winner had no other choice but to work in order to support their families.
Q2. Although women were given the opportunity to work, overall it was still new to society. By creating a wage difference between men and women they were able to create tension among the workforce. I also feel that the reason woman did not stand up for themselves was because they were glad that they were given the chance to work. Another reason why I felt woman did not stand up for themselves was because they were afraid of loosing their jobs. Many of the woman depended on their jobs in order to support their families and without their jobs most of their family will not fed or clothes.
PR #2
Hi Sirun, I agree with you about the nature of the shift in the workforce that occurred in the late 19th Century. It was in many ways an extremely positive movement, however, one unfortunate consequence of this progression I realized was the fact that once again women would be inadvertently divided. This time class would be the factor, of course race division would continue to be an issue, large numbers of minorities were still forced into ‘slave like’ conditions, working for white bosses. However, as the elite women became wealthier their interests and focus changed, it became even more important to make a ‘show’ of ones wealth through say clothing or property. Inevitably emotional bonds among women would be broken also. The unity formed during the war was soon forgotten and suddenly women from different class levels did not understand each other. They did not have the same interests or concerns, their lives so different, why would they? The thought of such separation among women saddens me. Of course society is still divided into various classes today, however I think there is a common bond between women of every culture and society due to I’m guessing the movements we will learn about next!!
PR 2
Watsup sandy, there is one point where I don't agree with you from question 1. I think that women's wage labor DID affect the elite status women. Although the influence might be minor, the fact that the lower classes were doing all the working, meant that they elite women had even MORE money to spend. They also had even LESS work to do meaning more time to have fun! Agreed on the picture comment. I say if they were to be unhappy, let them be unhappy in their native culture :)
Thats deep fiona, so deep it can look up and see you. you expanded on that question very very well without the use of the book. I love it.
P.R.#2
To Sandy
I agree with your response to Lusine's Blog #8. Especially about the Native American girls who were in fact being forced to go to boarding schools where they were being "trained" to be more European. I do agree with you that it had nothing to do with the girls either being rich or poor. But more on the fact that even then the white people were finding ways to put other races down. Since now that they could not have slaves anymore, and by law black people were considered to be close to an equal to white people. The white people turned their sights onto the Native Americans. They figured this was one race they can still have control over. So this picture was made to show how supposedly their schools were working in making Native American girls become white girls. Which we all can see was not true, because of the looks on their faces and also, just because they are sitting in chairs and dressed in European clothes did not make them be more like white people. Because to the end most of them still did not know how to write or read.
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