Questions and Answers
What happened to average middle-class income between 1865 and 1890?
By 1900, fully 36 percent of urban families owned their _____.
homes
What type of stores began to appear in the central business districts in the 1870s?
department stores
What new freedoms did women gain in the late 19th century?
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What did the depression of 1893 stimulate many women to investigate?
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Teaching was a high-paying and demanding field that grew as urban schools expanded.
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What provided new forms of employment in office work, nursing, and department stores?
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Which act contributed to the rise of land-grant state universities?
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What did the social ethic of the age stress?
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Child labor was not commonly linked to a father's income.
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Accident rates in the United States far exceeded those of ____'s industrial nations.
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What was a common working condition for most industrial workers?
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What demographic did most of the new immigrants from southern and central Europe lack?
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The ethnic diversity of the industrial workforce helps explain its occupational patterns, as occupation was related to ___ background and ___.
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What were domestic service jobs generally seen as?
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By 1900, what percentage of American women were in the workforce?
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Unemployment insurance existed in the late 19th century.
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Many married women contributed to family income by taking in _____.
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Nor could domestics count on much ____ from their employers.
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The fact that many women took domestic work despite the job's _____ speaks clearly of their ____ opportunities.
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The dismal situation facing working women drove some, such as Rose Haggerty, into ____. Prostitution appears to have ____ in the late nineteenth century.
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Probably most single women accepted the ___ jobs open to them. They tolerated ___ and ___ wages because their families depended on their contributions.
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What did women often do when they married?
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Like colonial families, late-nineteenth-century working-class _____ operated as cooperative economic units.
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The unpaid domestic ___ of working-class wives was critical to family survival.
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Women bore the burden of ___ care and the ___ chores.
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Because working-class families could not afford - conveniences, housework was time-consuming and arduous.
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What responsibilities did married women have regarding family resources?
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Domestic economies were ___ to survival.
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Women also supplemented family income by taking in work. Jewish and Italian women frequently did ___ work and ____ at home.
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In the ____ and the ____, between 10 and 40 percent of all working-class families kept ____.
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Black women's working lives reflected the obstacles African Americans faced in late-nineteenth-century cities. African American women worked outside the home before and after ____. In southern cities in 1880, about three-quarters of single black women and / of married black women worked outside the home.
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Because ____ employers would not hire African American women, most of them had to work as ____ or laundresses.
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The high percentage of married black women in the labor force reflected the ____ wages their husbands earned.
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What was learned during slavery regarding children and their mothers?
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Class ____ characterized late-nineteenth-century industrial life.
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Although workers welcomed the progress that factories made possible, many rejected their employers' values, which emphasized ____ gain at the expense of ____ good.
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While owners reaped most of the ____, workers were turning into wage ____. Fashioning their arguments from their republican legacy, workers claimed that the degradation of the country's citizen laborers threatened to undermine the republic itself.
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Workers sought to control the ___ of production.
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Too many goods meant an inhuman ___ of work and might result in ___ production, massive ____, and a ____ in the prices paid for piecework.
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What might experienced workers tell new workers?
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In attempting to protect themselves, workers devised ways of ____ employer attempts to speed up the production process.
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Denouncing fellow workers who ____ to honor production codes, they ostracized and even injured them.
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_____ism, ____ness at work, and general inefficiency were other widespread worker practices that contained elements of ___.
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What did frustrated employers attempt to do regarding absent and uncooperative workers?
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Most employers responded by penalizing workers who left without giving sufficient notice; it [did/______] work.
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Turnover in the industrial workforce could be high over a period of ten years.
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Study Notes
Economic and Social Changes in Late 19th Century America
- Industrialization led to significant economic and social polarization among different social classes.
- Between 1865 and 1890, average middle-class incomes rose, with 36% of urban families owning homes by 1900.
- Industrial expansion increased living standards, allowing the purchase of various consumer goods.
Middle-Class Women's Lives
- More leisure time emerged, and consumer goods became more accessible, altering middle-class women's daily lives.
- Servant labor relieved urban middle-class wives of household responsibilities.
- The emergence of department stores in the 1870s changed retailing and fueled material desire and shopping became central to middle-class women's lives.
Women's Independence and Rights
- Women gained new freedoms, including improved property rights in marriage, enhancing their independence.
- Women adopted more comfortable clothing suitable for work, school, and sports.
Women's Organizations and Employment
- Women joined various organizations which provided experience and awareness outside traditional roles.
- The depression of 1893 prompted women to investigate working conditions in slums and factories.
- Educated middle-class women primarily found employment in social services and teaching.
Education and Professional Opportunities
- Educational opportunities expanded for women, with new women's colleges emerging.
- By the early 20th century, the number of women professionals, including teachers, increased significantly.
- Higher education prepared women for conventional roles and emerging professions.
Family and Child Labor Dynamics
- The number of children born to educated women decreased, aided by advances in birth control.
- Child labor became a survival strategy, with 1 in 5 children aged 10-14 working in 1880.
Working-Class Struggles
- Working-class Americans faced long hours in dangerous jobs for meager wages, leading to limited mobility and security.
- Immigrants constituted a sizable portion of the urban workforce, often serving in unskilled labor positions.
Employment Demographics and Ethnic Diversity
- Ethnic diversity shaped occupational patterns, with native-born whites typically holding the most skilled positions.
- Most Southern and Central European immigrants lacked industrial experience and worked in unskilled jobs.
Industrial Working Conditions
- The rise of big business and mechanization transformed the workforce, doubling manufacturing workers from 1880 to 1900.
- Workers endured unhealthy and dangerous working conditions with limited regulations protecting their rights.
Income Disparities and Class Wealth
- By 1890, the wealth concentration favored the top 1% of families, illustrating severe economic inequality.
- The working class, while the largest labor force segment, experienced significant wage discrepancies based on skill and occupation.
Women's Role in the Workforce
- By 1900, 20% of American women participated in the labor force, earning significantly less than men, with some factory roles being among the few available.
- Domestic service was a predominant work class for women, highlighting their limited economic opportunities.
Family Economics and Domestic Labor
- Working-class families operated as cooperative economic units, with women contributing significantly through unpaid domestic labor.
- Women supplemented family income by taking in work or boarders, navigating through various challenges alongside family responsibilities.### Working Class Families
- Extra income significantly benefited many working-class families despite some disadvantages.
Black Women's Employment
- In the late 19th century, African American women faced substantial obstacles in urban job markets.
- A large percentage of single black women (about three-quarters) and one-third of married black women worked outside the home in southern cities by 1880.
- Due to discrimination, many black women found employment as domestics or laundresses.
- The labor force participation of married black women often stemmed from their husbands’ low wages, necessitating additional income.
- Changing perceptions regarding child-rearing allowed more women to enter the workforce.
Class Conflict in Industry
- Late 19th-century industrial life was marked by class conflict, as workers struggled with their employers' values prioritizing individual profit over collective good.
- Workers felt their rights as citizen laborers were threatened by the growing disparity between owner profits and worker treatment.
Workplace Control Struggles
- Workers resisted poor working conditions and the dehumanizing treatment by employers, seeking to control the workplace more effectively.
- Skilled workers held vital knowledge about production processes and often fought to maintain autonomy over their work.
- Efforts were made by some workers to humanize the workplace environment.
Control of Production Rate
- Workers aimed to regulate the pace of production to avoid overwork and detrimental economic consequences such as layoffs and price drops for piecework.
- Experienced workers often advised newcomers to work at a slower pace to maintain quality and job security.
Combating Production Speeding
- Workers developed strategies to resist employer pressure for increased production speed, often ostracizing peers who did not comply with established codes of conduct.
Absenteeism and Worker Protest
- Absenteeism, workplace inefficiency, and drunkenness were common practices among workers, reflecting broader sentiments of protest.
- While some absences resulted from legitimate layoffs, many were also expressions of frustration.
- Employers frequently attempted to penalize workers for unapproved absences, yet this approach rarely succeeded in reducing turnover rates within the workforce after a decade.
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Description
Dive into the economic and social changes of late 19th-century America with these flashcards. This quiz covers key concepts from chapter 18, exploring the polarization brought by industrialization. Test your knowledge of middle-class income and urban family ownership during this transformative period.
