American history overview and key concepts

American History

What was the most positive aspect of Baker's work and what did she find disagreeable; was it a good or bad experience for her? It seems the most positive aspect of work at the mill in Lowell is that the "…money we earn comes promptly; more so than in any other situation," Baker writes on page 2. Also, the women working at the mill "know what it is" and know what to expect because it's the same procedure every day. And when the workday is finished, "we feel perfectly free." Another positive aspect of working in the mill is that the women are given the chance to attend "lectures" and go to "evening schools and libraries," and every one is allowed to attend these places and activities. However, they work such long hours the problem is having time to "improve them as we ought."

There are many disagreeable aspects to Baker's experience. For one, the company is constantly "cutting down on wages." Baker wonders how the owners would like to "…work as hard as we do, digging and drudging day after day, from morning till night, and then, every two or three years, have their wages reduced" (p. 2). An employee can put in ten years of hard work and never see one raise. Also, with so little time to eat lunch Baker explains that the workers cannot go through the "useless process of mastication" (i.e., chewing carefully) and eat like an ox or a horse, "or any other dumb beast" because the women workers have no choice but to "…swallow your food whole." Additionally, the women are asked to work too many hours and that leaves too few hours for the mind to be "enriched and stored with useful knowledge" and when the bell rings the women are "obliged to go."

Overall this experience was not a good one for Baker. The list of negative points about working in the mill is longer and more emotionally draining than the list of positive aspects.

TWO: What things did Baker describe that reflected changes in the role of women, and did the factories enslave or empower the women? One change was that women were paid more to work in the mill than they were in other jobs (albeit they were still paid less than men). And women were actually recruited for this specific kind of work, which seems a new approach to female presence in the workplace. However, the way Baker describes it, with "agents" scouring the country "to decoy girls away from their homes with the promise of high wages" (the word "decoy" suggests deception and deviousness), makes it seem undignified and sinister. These factories seem to be enslaving women, not empowering women, although Baker notes that rough as the work is, women are given a chance to "toil" in order to support an "aged mother or orphaned brother and sister."

THREE: Would Baker have encouraged other women to work at Lowell? Probably she would not recommend this place of employment because it represented "…a miserable, selfish spirit of competition" which Baker hoped would be "…thrust from us and consigned to eternal oblivion." It was a "hardscrabble" existence for women so who would recommend it, especially because "harsh words" are spoken to the workers and the mind is not being "clothed and fed."