Periods of Change: Effect Upon Sexual Norms During the Industrial Revolutions of the 19th Century Essay

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"[footnoteRef:8] Women's roles as midwives and tenders of the sick were impinged upon by professional medical practitioners and their traditional roles at the sickbed were assumed by men. The profession of medicine itself became polarized into different roles: while as late as the Civil War in America males often assumed the role of 'nurse,' increasingly this profession (often conceptualized as a doctor's helper in its earlier incarnation) became relegated to women, although women such as Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale worked tirelessly to garner greater respect for the roles nurses could play. Even the role of midwife became male-dominated, as males who oversaw childbirth took on the oxymoronic title of 'male midwife.'[footnoteRef:9] [8: Burnette, 2008] [9: Burnette, 2008]

The law placed considerable obstacles in the paths of women who wished to own their own businesses or establish themselves as economically independent from the patriarchal wage and labor structures of industrial society. Married women could not make legally binding contracts or be sued, which meant that they found it difficult to secure loans.[footnoteRef:10] They were also largely barred from more lucrative work in guilds, with the exception of women who were widowed and who were viewed as capable of carrying on the trade, having presumably learned it working for their husband. [footnoteRef:11] [10: Burnette, 2008] [11: Burnette, 2008]

During what is often called the Second Industrial Revolution (1890-1914), "a period of great extremes" was ushered in, one of "great wealth and widespread poverty, great expansion and deep depression, new opportunities and greater standardization."[footnoteRef:12] Gender divisions during this period increased, as did class divisions. The middle class grew in prosperity, and thus "the roles of women and children changed: higher wages for skilled male workers allowed females to stay home and children to become students."[footnoteRef:13] the creation of 'childhood' as a concept became more widespread -- fewer children worked in factories.

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Unionization also resulted in improved wages for certain working class occupations, thus making it possible "for working-class families to depend on the income of husbands and the wages of grown children. By the early twentieth century, some working-class mothers could afford to stay at home, following the pattern of middle-class women."[footnoteRef:14] However, despite this greater polarization, many women also began to use the greater free time allocated to the middle and lower classes as work hours were reduced to engage in political agitation for women's rights and economic parity. Women also began to enter some of the clerical professions and teaching "From the mid-century, educated women began to prise open certain professional and clerical occupations, partly in response to the powerful Victorian 'gospel of work' that castigated idleness, partly to provide for the perceived 'surplus' of single women, and partly for the sake of self-fulfilment."[footnoteRef:15] [12: "The Second Industrial Revolution," U.S. History Scene, http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/secondindustrialrevolution / [14 May 2014]] [13: "The Second Industrial Revolution," U.S. History Scene, http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/secondindustrialrevolution / [14 May 2014]] [14: "The Second Industrial Revolution," Social Science, Gulf Coast University http://socsci.gulfcoast.edu/rbaldwin/2NDINDUS.NT2.htm] [15: Marsh, 2014]

Thus, in evaluating whether industrialization was 'good' or 'bad' for women, the legacy is mixed. Industrialization resulted in greater urbanization and education for both genders and exposed women to certain occupations they might not otherwise have been able to enjoy. Some women used the new opportunities offered to expand their personal and economic spheres. But the ideology of the division between male and female labor also grew more extreme and many women lost their livelihoods as their work became characterized as inherently male rather than female in quality......

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