1 / 14

Plight of Workers during the Gilded Age

Plight of Workers during the Gilded Age. For perhaps the first time in America’s history, men, women, and children of every age and ethnicity were forced to work and suffer together under the terrible working conditions of the “Gilded Age” to survive. Working Women. Changing Lives.

adelle
Download Presentation

Plight of Workers during the Gilded Age

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Plight of Workers during the Gilded Age For perhaps the first time in America’s history, men, women, and children of every age and ethnicity were forced to work and suffer together under the terrible working conditions of the “Gilded Age” to survive.

  2. Working Women

  3. Changing Lives • From 1870-1910 there was a 40% increase in women in the workforce. • Because of Inventions, women were often found working in mills as seamstresses. • Items usually made at home were now being made in factories ( clothes, shoes, etc.)

  4. Children

  5. Children as full time workers • 20% of boys and 10% of girls under 15 (some as young as 5) were working full time • 12-14 hours a day hard with little pay • Many deaths-forced to do difficult jobs and in small spaces. • Heavy machinery • Neglected and often unreasonably punished

  6. Men no work= no survival

  7. Plight of male workers • No insurance given-even though they were the head of households • Risk was necessary-families couldn’t survive unless the husband was working

  8. Not enough money, not enough hours • Thomas O’Donnell of New Hampshire explains his hours and wages at a textile factory • “…to earn 30 or 40 cents a day.” O’Donnell testifies to a court that he made a mere $133 in 15 weeks of work to support his wife and two children. • Trying to make enough money to support families was a near impossible task for men of the workforce

  9. Bad Working and Living Conditions

  10. Sweatshops • Jobs that were tedious and required few skills other than manual labor. • Lowest wage- 27 cents • 14 hour work days • Included not only men, but women and small children

  11. Death and Injury • Due to the use of heavy machinery and confined spaces, many men, women, and children were killed or injured. • The extremely low wages caused sickness and disease to spread among the working people. • Many children and women went without proper clothing and food.

  12. Unions Emerge

  13. Labor Unions • Because of the terrible working conditions and unfair wages, workers began to form labor unions with hope of ensuring safety, equality, and fair wages in the work force.

  14. Sources • Primary source: Johnson, Michael. Reading the American Past. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2002. Print. • Danzer, Gerald A., et al. The Americans. Boston, MA: McDougal Littel, 2005. Print. • "Women and Children in the Industrial Revolution." Schools History. N.p., 25 Apr. 2000. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. <http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/womenandchildren.htm>.

More Related