¶ … german worker: working-Class autobiographies from the age of industralization Germany is a well- recognized industrial power house in the world today. Its industrial development, like that of many countries in Europe, occurred gradually over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was made possible by the millions of men and women that gave their labor - those who carried the bricks, printed the books, hacked down the coal, sewed the shirt and cuffs and collars, and laid down the railroad ties that facilitated the growth of the industrial sector Germany. Ottilie Baader was one such woman, forced to work as a seamstress in multiple sewing factories in Berlin to support her Siblings and ailing father.[footnoteRef:2] The source selected for this essay is Badder's memoir composed in 1921, in which she details how female workers such as herself were manipulated by the Berlin factory owners and how they were forced to work under strenuous conditions at a degrading pay, until they finally learnt to stand up against gender- based oppression at the workplace.[footnoteRef:3] [2: Ottilie Baader. Memoir, 1860's in Alfred Kelley, ed. The German Workers: workers class Autobiographies from the Age of industrialization. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1987), 67.] [3: Ibid.,64.]

Baader provides crucial insight on three core areas: i) the status of women in the German society in the 19th century, ii) the introduction and growth of the concept of unionization among the female factory workers in Berlin and the greater Europe, and iii) the effect of the sewing machine on women's lives in the 19th century. Literature presented in various history books and scholarly articles was reviewed to determine what other researchers say about the three areas above, and how those views align with, or differ from those put forth by Baader in her memoir. The review showed that Baader's descriptions about the role and place of women in German society at the time were in fact in line with other available information.

The subsequent sections summarize the results of the conducted review. The first section draws comparisons between the descriptions provided by Baader in her memoir, and those provided by researchers in relation to the roles and place of men and women in the German society. The second section compares Baader's descriptions with those of scholars in regard to the working conditions of the working class in the mid-19thcentury, and the spread of unionization among female workers. The final section examines what Baader says about how the invention of the sewing machine affected her life as a woman, vis-a-vis what literature says.

Baader mentions that women were allowed to work in factories as long as they were unmarried and did not have children. Even when she and her sister were old enough to work for themselves, they had to stay unmarried in order to keep their jobs at the factory. Baader does not explain why this was so; however, a number of researchers have supported the view that this was because the European culture considered the place of women to be in the home.[footnoteRef:4] According to historians William Duiker and Jackson spielogel, working-class organizations believed that allowing married women to take up roles in the workplace would ruin the physical and moral well-being of families, given that women were supposed to stay at home to nurture their children and provide support to their husbands.[footnoteRef:5] [4: William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel.The Essential World History Volume 2(Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2010), 473.] [5: Ibid.]

Baader talks about the important role that her mother played in supporting the family. As a house wife, she took responsibility for all the domestic choice of the house and even at times assisted with their fathers duties. For instance, Baader described how her mother use to check on them to see if everybody had the right clothes for school and also how she assisted their father with the family expenses by making and selling filter clothes for the sugar factory.[footnoteRef:6] Baader herself also played a significant support role in the family, dropping out of school to look after her ailing father, and nurturing her brother's children while he away on duty.[footnoteRef:7] [6: Baader, Memoir,65.] [7: Ibid., 72]

Baader mentions that the invention of the sewing machine in 1860 opened up opportunities for more women to increase their participation in the sewing industry and make extra cash to pay for expenses and support their families. However, their wages were still not enough as their employers made deductions for the cost of wasted thread and broken needles. Also, women at the factory were often allocated with secondary roles such as assembly and preparatory roles as the men took care of the main...

As such, factories were often reserved from men, who were viewed as the more important workers.[footnoteRef:11] Thirdly, it was feared that allocating women roles that were traditionally meant for men would threaten the positions and superiority of the male species.[footnoteRef:12] [8: Ibid., 71. ] [9: Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender, Routledge International: Encyclopedia of Women (Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2004), 457.] [10: Ibid.] [11: Ibid.] [12: Ibid., 456.]
A similar view is held by D. Hafter, who explains how roles were allocated and decisions made in European guild and family workshops in the 19th century -- the men provided direction and management, and made all decisions pertaining to the workshop.[footnoteRef:13] The wife and children, on the other hand, were left to perform the unskilled, auxiliary duties, with no close connection to the production process.[footnoteRef:14] [13: Daryl Hafter, European Women and Preindustrial Craft (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995), 43] [14: Ibid.]

This is synonymous to what Baader explains in her memoir during the time when she worked at the Schwendy Wool Factory -- the boss would make them work continuously by inserting a night shift between Friday and Saturday; yet Baader and her female colleagues were not consulted when any such decisions were being made. Decisions were just made for them. Their male foreman, on the other hand, was given a hearing, and his views taken into consideration in the decision-making process -- the shift between Friday evening and Saturday morning was expunged after he intervened for Baader and her colleagues, with the view that the work was too much for decent girls.[footnoteRef:15] [15: Baader, Memoir,69]

The role of women in factories, however, continued to expand, and in the course of the century, their position in guild workshops and in factories became more prominent.[footnoteRef:16] Baader mentions in her memoir that with the invention of the sewing machine in the 1860s, more and more women began to be employed in sewing roles as opposed to being tied down to preparatory roles alone as had been the case in the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century.[footnoteRef:17] D. Hafter mentions that as the century progressed, women were able to establish their own trades, become bosses of guilds, and even make themselves masters of textile crafts.[footnoteRef:18] Their legal status improved considerably in the second half of the 19th century.[footnoteRef:19] [16: Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Patricia Zakreski. Crafting the woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003), 117. ] [17: Baader, Memoir,70] [18: Hafter, European Women and Preindustrial Craft, 144. ] [19: Ibid.]

Unionization in Europe in the 19th Century

Female factory workers in Europe in the 19th century worked under deplorable conditions.[footnoteRef:20] Baader describes in her memoir, how she and her colleagues worked with toilets right adjacent to the workroom and had to bear the awful smell throughout the day, and how the employer would sometimes force them to work continuously for days without breaks.[footnoteRef:21] They were dismissed from their work stations without notice and forced to put their hands inside running machines without protective gear.[footnoteRef:22] These work conditions mirror those described by Simpson and Jones of how young children in Lancashire, Britain were made to piece broken ends of glass with their bare hands as the employer saw no reason to purchase gloves and protective wear for his workers.[footnoteRef:23] [20: William Simpson and Martin Jones, Europe: 1783-1914 (Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2000), 259] [21: Baader, Memoir,69] [22: Ibid.] [23: Simpson and Jones, Europe: 1783-1914, 259]

Baader points out that they worked under these conditions because there were no labor inspections and no organizations to support their interests.[footnoteRef:24] Simpson and Jones support this view, arguing that although there were approximately 400 different unions in Germany by the end of the 19th century, most of these represented men.[footnoteRef:25] [24: Baader, Memoir,69] [25: Simpson and Jones, Europe: 1783-1914, 259]

A number of factors have been put forth to explain why unionization was slow among female European workers in the 19th century. Simpson and Jones suggest that this may have been caused by ignorance and lack of…