

It is an attack on the entire wage system but particularly focuses on how factory jobs affect the mill girls: "‘She has worked in a Factory,’" Brownson argues, "is almost enough to damn to infamy the most worthy and virtuous girl." In response, "A Factory Girl" published a defense of the mill girls in the December 1840 issue of the Lowell Offering, a journal of articles, fiction, and poetry written by and for the Lowell factory operatives. The Transcendentalist reformer Orestes Brownson first published "The Laboring Classes" in his journal, the Boston Quarterly Review, in July 1840. Others criticized the entire wage-labor factory system as a form of slavery and actively condemned and campaigned against the harsh working conditions and long hours and the increasing divisions between workers and factory owners. Many observers saw this challenge to the traditional roles of women as a threat to the American way of life.
#Yep girls you saw live free#
Unlike most young women of that era, they were free from parental authority, were able to earn their own money, and had broader educational opportunities. For many of the mill girls, employment brought a sense of freedom. The Lowell mills were the first hint of the industrial revolution to come in the United States, and with their success came two different views of the factories. These "operatives"-so-called because they operated the looms and other machinery-were primarily women and children from farming backgrounds. It introduced a new system of integrated manufacturing to the United States and established new patterns of employment and urban development that were soon replicated around New England and elsewhere.īy 1840, the factories in Lowell employed at some estimates more than 8,000 textile workers, commonly known as mill girls or factory girls. Find out more on our SDG and Gender learning pages (coming soon).Įnding child marriage and guaranteeing girls’ rights means a fairer, more secure and prosperous future for us all.Lowell, Massachusetts, named in honor of Francis Cabot Lowell, was founded in the early 1820s as a planned town for the manufacture of textiles. Systems that undervalue the contribution and participation of girls and women limit their own possibilities for growth, stability and transformation.Ĭhild marriage directly hinders the achievement of at least six of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Find out more on our Economic Justice learning page (coming soon). With little access to education and economic opportunities, girls and their families are more likely to live in poverty.

When they marry as children, girls miss out on developing the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to make informed decisions, negotiate, access paid employment and live independent lives. Find out more on our Education learning page. For the same reasons – and sometimes because of official school or national policies – it is difficult for married girls, pregnant girls and young mothers to return to school.

When a girl gets married she is often expected to drop out of school to look after the home, children and extended family. Find out more on our Health learning page. Ending child marriage will improve the health of millions of girls, and their children. Girls who formally marry or cohabit as if married before the age of 18 are more likely to have early pregnancies, experience dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, acquire HIV, and experience domestic violence. Ĭhild marriage violates girls’ rights to health, education and opportunity.Ĭhild marriage is any formal marriage or informal union where one or both parties are under 18 years of age. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this may increase by a further 13 million girls. If pre-pandemic trends continue, 150 million more girls will be married by 2030. Globally, the rates of child marriage are slowly declining but progress isn't happening fast enough. More than 650 million women alive today already suffer the direct consequences of child marriage.
