factors of production definition world history

Lowell, Massachusetts: The Experiment on the Merrimack Their departure meant one fewer mouth to feed, and the potential of supporting the family with cash wages. Such factors may have influenced many women’s decisions to go to Lowell. Large families, failed crops, and little cash income threatened family stability. By the 1840s, cash crops from farms west of Albany dominated the market.

Those who remained in agriculture were forced to concentrate on livestock or cash crops that could be sold to national markets. Farming in the Age of FactoriesĪs the popularity of factory work grew, many questioned the wisdom of moving away from the land. By the mid-19th century, popular media depicted the “True Woman” as one who could competently manage a household, tend to the needs of husband and children, and create a pleasant and morally pure environment. The new role of women was to transform the home into a haven for the men who faced daily pressures and dangers in the work place.Īt the same time, women were morally responsible for raising dutiful children, preferably sons. The household, and the women who made it a home, took on new meaning. With the availability of manufactured goods, a woman’s role as producer within the home was reduced. Women were not paid for work in the home. Industrial Capitalism and the Changing Role of Women Material success – how much money one could make and what they could buy with it – became a measure of a person's worth. They made money - not goods - to provide for the family.

Rather than selling goods they had produced, these workers sold their time to factory owners, who, in turn, sold the mass-produced goods. Increasingly, men began working outside of the home. With the first stages of industrialization, these patterns changed. Men were the heads of households, but the role of women as caretakers and producers of goods, such as food and clothing, was equally important. Within this context, the status of men and women was relatively equal. Most families lived on farms where everyone worked to produce goods in order to survive. In pre-industrial America, the household was the center of production. Industrialization redefined the role of women in the home, at the same time opening new opportunities for them as industrial wage earners. During this period, women's roles changed dramatically. Industrialization brought new opportunities for employment, changing ideas of work, and economic cycles of boom and bust.

The first half of the 19th century was a time of great change. Lowell and the American Industrial Revolution

Factors of production definition world history