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."

FOUR: Was the Lowell...

But Baker also makes the point that the women seemed about ready to rebel, which suggests that conditions like this might lead eventually to unionization. The women protested the long hours and the miserably puny pay, and Baker asserts that these "…objections must and will be answered" because the "time has come when something, besides the clothing and feeding of the body" must be addressed (and that is the clothing and feeding of the "mind"). The answer to this question is yes, this terrible workplace environment did eventually lead to a new role for women but for the time being these were definitely "poorly paid" women hoping for a better life.
Works Cited

Baker, Josephine L. (1998). The Lowell Offering: Writings by New England Mill Women (1840-

1845). New York W.W. Norton, 77-82.