Technology and Women: Out to Work Review
The National Council of the Social Studies standard 8, “Science, Technology and Society” is vital to the understanding of innovations and inventions on the social structure of a society. The standard asks the question of whether a new technology is better than the technology it replaced. A student of history can also ask the question if the societal change resulting from an invention creates a better society than the one prior to the invention. Many inventions and innovations came to change the society of the United States. The role of women changed as a result of the new technologies. As technology progressed so did the importance of women in the economic workforce.
Early technology helped the transition of women’s role in the transition from a pure agrarian society to one seeking profits (early industrial). Early in the Revolutionary War period, women worked at home to supply goods that the colonies did not have due to their boycotts of British goods. The need for homemade goods started the need for women to use technology like sewing and the use of domestic tools to make develop a self sufficient society. The success of boycotts and the level of self sufficiently that the colonists achieved led to an America that started to develop textile mills and lumber mills. After the revolution women took advantage of the newly developed U.S. industries, “Women at home gladly took advantage of the new machinery to reduce their labor. Other women performed the tasks of making textile good in the spinning mill instead of at home” (p. 25). The success of the Revolution led the U.S. to develop new industries that women took part in; changing their role as only a domestic one.
Many post-Revolution technologies caused widespread social changes to women’s roles. The first generation of female factory women had to first make the difficult decision to break away from traditional work. The difficulty women faced can be seen in the high turnover rates of early textile mills. Kessler-Harris discusses the conflict between traditional roles and these new roles in relation to turnover rates. When the prices of a piece of textile women were working on dropped, women left their jobs in droves. Women did not need a huge reason to leave their new jobs to go back to the traditional type of work that was expected of them. This quick abandonment shows how fragile the new roles of women were.
The new roles offered to women because of the advancement of technology created negative perceptions on wage earning women by society. Kessler-Harris states, “The ideology that exalted home roles condemned the lives of those forced to undertake wage work. Sympathetic perceptions of women wage earners sacrificing for the sake of their families gave way to charges of selfishness and family neglect” showing the negative views of women in society. Technology allowed people to produce more, become wage earner; allowed people to abandon self-sufficient farming and many women had to partake in the new changes to support their families. Women found difficulties in doing what was needed of them because of the new economic needs that encouraged women to work and the old perceptions of what women’s work was.
Technology and war played a huge part in the changing social positions of women in the late 19th century. The sewing machine invented in 1845 led to the process of replacing hand made sewing and clothing production to large scale cheap garments that were made in mills. Women’s roles were changed because a piece of technology was replacing work that was traditionally women’s work. Women did not have to do traditional work like sewing clothes for the whole family because now clothes were made in mills. Women’s roles were further changed when the Civil War broke out in the U.S. and a need for greater productivity in factories led to the recruitment of women by industry. The development of industries and the participation of women in these new industries led to a tension between women and traditional societal roles.
After the War, the stage had been set for women to play a significant role in the wage earner society of an industrial America. The prevalence of women in the work force changed women’s perceptions of themselves because many women were starting to reach for jobs and careers that were often out of the reach of women. The need for women in the work force was reinforced by the creation of jobs specific for women in industry. Unfortunately, many of the women-centered jobs were easily replaced by new mechanical innovations. The need for women to work in industry, the ambitions of women, then the replacement of women by machines, and the abuse of women in the workforce led to a new type of woman in the U.S.; the activist.
Women started to fight against the perceptions of women’s work and a woman’s place in society after they had been hurt by the lack of regulations and protection in their new roles in industry. Massachusetts passed the first minimum wage law in 1912 but this was the only law in all of the states until the Progressive movement in the 1920s where women started to demand rights and protection. Progressive women started to demand rights leading to changes in the workplace for women. Perceptions were further shattered during WWI when, “Some women moved into men’s jobs in chemical, automobile manufacturing, iron and steel” showing that women were now doing jobs that were once limited to them. Women began working on assembly lines in factories to help during the war effort. After the World Wars women were urged back into “traditional” roles like secretarial jobs due to new technologies such as the typewriter. Women’s roles as wage earners differed depending on what was happening in society as a whole. Despite the push for women to start doing “women’s” jobs after the World Wars, women were a staple of the wage earning work force. Even though women still had to fight for equality and positions that were off limit to them, women were now ingrained in the wage earning culture.
Alice Kessler-Harris’ book Out to Work is a significant work linking the role of women in society with the advent of technology. The NCSS standard 8 seeks to understand the very relationship and change of people and society with new technological innovations. Not only does Kessler-Harris’ book fit into Standard 8, Out to Work is a great historical look at the history of women in the United States. Out to Work clearly takes the reader through the history of women’s role in the U.S. and does so in a clear and effective way. The book is a great tool to view U.S. history from different point of view than the traditional male-centered view or even an economic-centered view that often fails to study the workers and the changing roles of people with economic success and change.
After studying Out to Work, the importance of women in the work force is seen to be a vital component in the economic health of the U.S. United States history teachers can use this book not only to study women but to study the role of industry and change in America. It is key in understanding that the boycotts of British goods were essential in eliminating colonial dependence on the British. Industry in the U.S. occurred after independence and this industry was not just what many people envision what the Industrial Revolution was. It is enlightening to discover that industry was already taking place before the Industrial Revolution and that there were different types of tools like the sewing machine that women could take home to produce goods. The introduction of the manufacturing styles associated with the Industrial Revolution can be seen in Out to Work but it is exciting to see that women had a role in the workforce long before these new modes of production took place.
Alice Kessler-Harris’ book Out to Work is an excellent in understanding the relationship between technology and social change. Women were affected greatly by inventions because whole perceptions were changed. Society was changed by inventions and by the new roles women took. Women became a vital source of labor in a wage earning workforce.
