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8 WORKING WOMEN IN ENGLAND AND FB ANCE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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J ¦ ^^^^B-^ ^ Ui ' ^^^O^E^&.^Re: Iia^Re ...
Having thus pointed out the conditions Tinder which so large a proportion of our national commercial prosperity is carried on ,
permit me to say a few words regarding the practical consequences and duties it entails . Nobody can doubt , that so vast a social
change must be gradually inducing an equally great moral change , and that some of the consequences must be bad . I am careful to
limit my expressions , because it must not be forgotten that I have not spoken to-day of the poor or of the degraded , but of the bulk
6 f the factory workpeople of England and France , and of large classes in Scotland and Irelandwho earn their bread by respectable
industry and are often the main , " support of their families . It is truethat I have heard and could tell grievous stories of the wild ,
half- , state of the women and irls in some districtsin some factories savage / under some bad or careless g masters ; but that is , not the
side of things to which I wish to draw attention : —it is rather tothe inevitable results of non-domestic labor for women and to the
special duties it imposes on those of a higher class . In the _firsfr lacethere are the obvious results of the absence of married
women p , from their homes , an absence which I believe we may fairlstateshouldin the majorityof instancesbe discouraged by
y , , , every possible moral means , since the workman must be verywretched indeed before his wife's . absence can be a source of real
gain . Then there is the utter want of domestic teaching and training during the most important years of youth . How to help
this is no easy matter , since , whatever we may do in regard to married womenwe certainly cannot prevent girls from being
employed in factories , , nor , in the present state of civilization , provide other work for them if we could so prevent them ; and lastly , there
is what I believe to be the sure deterioration of health ; we are as yet onlin the second generationbut any one who has closely
watched the y effect of ten hours in , England and twelve hours in France , of labor chiefly conducted in a standing posture amidst the
noise and , in some cases , the necessary heat of factories , _uponyoungs growing irlsknows how the weakly ones are carried off by
consumption , g or , any hereditary morbid tendency , and what the subtlenervous strain must be tipon all . '
Believe me , there is enough in the necessary , and what we have come to consider the natural , features of modern industry , to arouse
the earnest conscientious attention of the wives and daughters 6 f employers , and of all good wonien whoni Providence has gifted with ;
that hel education p it be is . not and Except strictl means in speaking . some And isolated the missionary need cases is peculi we work will . ar , hop It and is e not so and must to believe teach the
the wholly _xineducated , y , to reclaim , the drunkard ; to rouse the sinner ; there is h of that to be done in England and Francebut it
is not of enoug that I am speaking . Help and teaching and friendliness , are wanting for the respectable workwoman , such as have already
heen part - ly provided , for the respectable workman . "When "Lord
8 Working Women In England And Fb Ance.
8 WORKING WOMEN IN _ENGLAND AND _FB ANCE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1861, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091861/page/8/
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