Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution Women Miners Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution Owen Marx
The Middle Class As more jobs became available the middle class grew. (bankers, merchants, lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc) Large houses Leisure time Fine clothes
Do as I say! Changes in Society People became wage earners, dependant of others instead of themselves. Clocks replace seasons as people’s work cycle. Factories were full of rules, farms were not. Life became difficult and monotonous 12 people in one room apartment Illness, death or unemployment meant starvation.
Housing Workers lived in very small houses on cramped streets Shared toilet facilities-open sewers Disease spread through contaminated water supply Chest diseases from the mines, cholera, typhoid& smallpox extremely common The greatest killer in the cities was tuberculosis By the late 19th century, 70 to 90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America had TB 40% of working-class deaths in cities were from TB Dr. John Snow’s Cholera map - 1854
Child labor Children as young as six years old worked hard hours for little or no pay Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break Children were paid only a fraction of what an adult would get
In England and Scotland in 1788, 60% workers in cotton mills were children
Women’s Issues: “A Great Step Sideways” Many women & girls worked in manual labor - mines Other jobs considered “women’s work” paid less. Textile mills Servants Middle Class women Belonged at home Had servants to do work and raise the children Many never married Improved education opened some professions like teaching and nursing.
Demographic Change Life expectancy of children increased dramatically. 75% children born in London died before the age of five in 1730s ,but only 32% in 1820s Population of England by 1901was 30.5 million Massive urbanization and the rise of new great cities In 1717 Manchester - a market town of 10,000 ,by 1911 – a city of 2.3 million