This reading is all about women working in the mines in England and Scotland, and was written in 1842 during the Industrial Revolution. Men and boys working in the mines either were naked down to the waist or completely naked as they worked. Many girls and women working in the mines were naked down to the waist, although some were clothed. The common clothing among all were the belts around their waste with chains passing between their legs, and many times these chains would wear holes in their pants between their legs, which was very indecent. The hard work of mining coal was distributed evenly across male and female workers. The fact that women and young girls were working with naked men in dark chambers led to common sexual occurrences. Much of the time the women had very little to eat all day long and went home exhausted and filthy to their children in the evening.
The textbook discusses the large numbers of women and children that were recruited into the workforce during the Industrial Revolution, especially in the textile and mining industries. Female and child labor was plentiful and cheap. Children only received 1/6 to 1/3 of what a man would earn, and women received 1/3 to 1/2 of what a man would make. The women and children did not have a choice but to take one of these low-paying jobs. Families needed money, and everyone had to work and earn what they could. After some time, women could no longer care for their children while on the job, which led to the trend of women taking care of the children at home while the men earned wages and worked outside the home.
The sentence that stood out to me the most was, "When it is remembered that these girls hurry chiefly for men who are not their parents; that they go from 15 to 20 times a day into a dark chamber (the bank face), which is often 50 yards apart from anyone, to a man working naked, or next to naked, it is not to be supposed but that where opportunity thus prevails sexual vices are of common occurrence." I cannot imagine being a girl or woman of any age having to work around naked men and being raped in a coal mine. I cannot imagine being that desperate for money that I would take a job where I did hard manual labor for twelve hours a day, and would be frequently taken advantage of at any given moment. I cannot imagine only having bread and butter for lunch, and just having potatoes for dinner, and maybe every once in awhile, some meat. People were really struggling just to survive and had to do whatever they could to make some money, even if that meant being taken advantage of, or choosing to let your children be taken advantage of.
This reading reminds of the poverty in third world countries, where people are so desperate they either sell their children or themselves into prostitution. I am sure that word spread, and the women and young girls knew what additional services they would be providing in addition to their back-breaking physical labor. I'm sure women and young girls realized that in addition to being miners, they were also agreeing to be prostitutes, except without any extra pay. In some respect, you could say that these girls and women had it worse than prostitutes because they had to do hard, filthy labor for twelve hours a day, in addition to being victimized by men in the mines for no additional pay.
In modern times, there are still sweatshops, where most often, young, uneducated women work for an unfair wage, and cannot meet the standard of living with this as their only income. These women often have to work in unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, and are the victims of sexual harassment. The garment industry is based on a system where retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are at the top of the sub-contracting chain. Manufacturers hire contractors and subcontractors, who then hire the garment workers. Most contractors are in a tough position due to competition, and they have to pay low wages and cut corners with safety and conditions because they are not being paid enough by the manufacturers. Thus, the garment workers get the short end of the stick and have to work very hard for low wages and be a victim to whatever the conditions may be.
Sources:
Text book
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~nshah/fashioncrimes/Sweatshops.html
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