American History Lowell Women Strikes

Women and their fight for Workers Rights Sometime after the American Revolution, America started its growth not only in the expansion of its territories but the growth of its industry. With this growth came opportunities for not only men but women seeking to become more independent and self-reliant. This paper will discuss the struggles of the Lowell Mill women and their fight for workers' rights. This paper will cover the many struggles the Lowell Mill women faced when trying to obtain better working conditions and more manageable work hours such as the "Ten Hour Workday" petition. It will also go over how not all women saw this movement as a fight for equal rights but the weakening of women's virtue. The women of the Lowell Mill never achieved new freedoms, as a result of every turnout, or strikes failed, could not pass labor bills in congress, and fought other loyalists that were for the Mills. Many factors lead to the events of the Lowell Mill Strikes. The main factors were a reduction in wages, poor working conditions, and unreasonable working hours. "As the mill owners cut wages, sped up machines, and extended work hours, factory conditions deteriorated to the point that many female operatives joined male workers in unionization efforts that coalesced in the Ten Hour Movement". Because of this many of the female laborers for the first all-women union in North America. (Boryczka, 2006, p. 49) After the announcement of the cut in wages the women laborers began to strike and refused to work and protested. "In February 1834, 800 of Lowell's women operatives "turned-out"— went on strike — to protest a proposed reduction in their wages."(Dublin, 1975, p. 107). After a few days the women were given back pay for the lost wages and returned to work for the same wages and conditions the mills were providing. There would be more protest "In 1834 and 1836 they went on strike to protest wage cuts, and between 1843 and 1848 they mounted petition campaigns' aimed at reducing the hours of labor in the mills." (Dublin, 1975, p. 100) These "turn-outs" would end up failing and no changes were made to the mills. Some of the outcomes of the strikes were that every strike failed because of the financial and political power the mills had over the women. This helps the women laborers leaner from their failures and pursue more political backing in their fight for workers' rights. The creation of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association in 1845 was another outcome of the strikes that was an all-female organization that "elected their own officers, held their own meetings, testified before a state legislative committee, and published a series of "Factory Tracts" which exposed conditions within the mills and argued for the ten-hour day."(Dublin, 1975, p. 113)This union led to the formation of the Ten Hour Movement that also ended up failing but showed the powers behind the mills that their workers would not be treated as indentured servants or slaves. The Lowell Mill Women, staying virtuous while still being independent. The Lowell Mill women not only faced opposition from the Mill owners denying them fair wages and safe working conditions but from Virtuous Women, also known as Loyalist, who felt that the mill workers were not following the standards of "True Womanhood". "True Women served as the nation's moral guardians who, in a generally secular democracy, assumed primary responsibility from ministers and priests for preserving the status quo associated with moral, cultural, and religious traditions."(Boryczka, 2006, p. 50) Even with the Loyalist women siding with the Mill owners, the Mill women sought democratic standards to replace True Women standards with "Jacksonian era's rights-based discourse to fit their particular context, focusing on natural rights, freedom, equality, and justice to promote social change while retaining the female focus of the virtue-based discourse."(Boryczka, 2006, p. 62) Showing the Mill women only wanted what was promised to men to all God's children under the Declaration of Independence. To also maintain True Womanhood, but to change it in a way that would set a concrete standard, but a standard that all women could adapt to. The Lowell Mill women and the fight for the Ten Hour Movement. The Ten Hour Movement was a petition that was created by the Lowell Mill Women workers asking that the State Legislatures create a bill that would regulate the working day to just ten hours a day instead of around the clock type conditions the mills currently run at. This movement was created from the community of women living in the company boarding house "they came to rely upon one another for friendship and support"(Dublin, 1975, p. 115)This community was vital in creating the Lowell Female Labor Reform in 1845. They wanted to not only reduce the work hours but to also expose with working conditions of the mills. ("We Call on You to Deliver Us," 1845) Eliza Bixby, a window into a day of a Lowell Mill woman. Not only were the Lowell Mill Women faced difficult working conditions and wage reductions, but they also face the life of living in a male-dominated world. One example of this was a letter from Eliza A Bixby. She was a MIll worker and she writes to her brother about an incident with a man she calls Mr. H who also works at the mill. She describes the many advancements he made during a day out and how he almost had his way with her had someone not interrupted this. She writes this letter not only to inform her brother but to try to save her sister, Lydia, from working at the same mill that MR H works at since she fears that he may advance on her as well. (Bixby, 1852) Although the Lowell Women Mill workers had many turnouts, also known as strikes, they did not achieve the goals they were fighting for. They did however achieve in creating more opportunities for the future generation of working women. (1975) During the 1850 Lowell, Ma was the nation's largest textile manufacture which was an amazing feat since "In 1820, there had been no city at all—only a dozen family farms along the Merrimack River in East Chelmsford"(p. 1). This created many job opportunities mostly for the women in the area and opportunity for Yankee women to become more independent since they would be making their own income and not dependent on seeking a man for income stability. 1834 the Mills decided to reduce wages causing 800 workers to "turned-out" in protest of the reduction in wages, but the strike was brief and failed since the Mill paid back wages the following day and many of the workers had either returned the work or left the town and the Mills were back at full capacity. "This first strike in Lowell is important not because it failed or succeeded, but simply because it took place"(p. 9). Another strike occurred in 1836 for another wage reduction that the MIlls were imposing but unlike the first strike 1500 workers turned out and lasted weeks instead of days. Unfortunately, the results were the same as many returned to the mills at the reduced rates but this time the Mill Women became more organized and would lead to them forming their own union. With every strike, the Lowell Mill Women became more organized and seek political help to get fair compensations from the Mills. By the 1840s the Lowell Mill women had formed the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. This would be the leading organization for other mill working women throughout the Lowell area. This organization also created a weekly publication called the Voice of Industry that would expose mill working conditions but educate its readers on the Ten Hour Movement that they were working with state legislators to pass. The Ten Hour Movement would limit the Mills to working hours for its workers to only ten hours a day instead of the unusual hours they forced workers as one worker described as "It is not enough, that like the poor peasant of Ireland, or the Russian serf who labors from sun to sun, but during one half of the year, she must continue to toil on, long after Nature's lamp has ceased to lend its aid" (1845) When this petition was unfavorably viewed by the State legislature committee the Female Labor Reform Association felt that William Schouler, the State representative from Lowell and the committee chairman, was a corporate "tool" and worked towards successfully unseating him from his position. Further proving that the fight for change would not come from turn-out but changes in policies and getting the right people to represent them. (Dublin, 1975, p. 16) Even with the difficult fight against the mill owners and male-dominated political field, the mill women also faced opposition from conservative women who felt that these women were lacking in virtue. (Boryczka) Industrialization and urbanization were shaping America giving women the chance to participate. This newfound need for independence gave the question of what True Womanhood was. This caused women to form two factions, the rebels, and the loyalist. The rebels were the mill women fighting for fair wages and better working conditions and the loyalist, conservative women that characterized True Womanhood as "piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity".(2006, p. 51) Harriet Farley, who sided with the loyalist, wrote many articles in the Lowell Offering magazine that advocated for corporate policies and how many female workers upheld True Womanhood values. The loyalist saw the rebels as selfish and greedy women to demand better wages, better working conditions, and shorter hours. These were seen as vices and they "wanted mill girls to reform the self, not the external world in which they lived."(2006, p. 54) The Lowell Mill women may have failed with every turnout to get the rights they felt they needed, but they did evolve with every turnout. Learning to become more organized and working with their local legislators to force the mills to make better working conditions and pay fair wages. Even with oppositions from women who sided with the mills, they learned to adapt to the fight as well and to continue fighting no matter how many battles were lost. The irony of all these fights against the mills is how not only where the mills exploiting the women workers, they were the source of their independence as well. (Dublin, 1975, p. 116)