1. Hardships of Industrial Life

2. Industrial Cities Urbanization- the movement of people to cities
The poor lived in tiny rooms in tenements (multistory buildings divided into crowded apartments)
Tenements had no running water or sanitation systems

3. Factories Shifts lasted 12 to 16 hours
If they were sick or injured, they lost their jobs
Employers preferred to hire women more than men
Able to pay them less
Family life was difficult for women
Factories hired many children
Wages from children helped prevent families from starving
Employers often hired orphans

4. The New Middle Class
Those who benefitted from the industrial revolution were entrepreneurs (middle class)
Middle-class lives in well-furnished homes
Middle-class women did not have to work
Middle-class people valued hard-work and had little sympathy for the poor

5. Benefits and Problems Industrial age brought many hardships
Reformers pressed for laws to improve working conditions
Workers’ organizations called labor unions won the right to bargain with employers for better wages, hours, and working conditions
Eventually, working class men gained the right to vote, which gave them political power
Social problems- low pay, unemployment, dismal living conditions
Material benefits:
demand for goods increased making new factories open which created new jobs
Wages rose so workers had enough left after paying rent and buying food to buy a newspaper or visit a music hall
As the cost of railroad travel fell, people could visit family in other towns.