working life of women seventeenth century - School of Economics ...

TEXTILEShigher wages than would have been accepted bythose whose children were suffering from hunger.Somewhat apart from economics and the rateof wages, is the influence which the developmentsof the woollen trade exercised on women's socialposition, through the disintegration of the socialorganisation known as the village community. TheEnglish village had formed a social unit almostself-contained, embracing considerable varieties ofwealth, culture and occupation, and finding selfexpressionin a public opinion which provided adequatesanction for its customs, and determined allthe details of manners and morals. In the formationof this public opinion women took an activepart.The seasons of depression in the Woollen Tradebrought to such communities in the " ClothingCounties " a desolation which could only be rivalledby Pestilence or Famine. Work came to a standstill,and wholesale migrations followed. Many fathersleft their starving families, in search of work elsewhereand were never heard of again. The traditions offamily life and the customs which ruled the affairsof the village were lost, never to be again restored,and with them disappeared, to a great extent, therecognised importance of women in the life of thecommunity.The social problems introduced by the wagessystem in its early days are described in a contemporarypamphlet. It must be remembered that theterm " the poor " as used at this time signified thepauper class, hard-working, industrious families whowere independent of charity or assistance from thepoor rates being all included among the " commonpeople." " I cannot acknowledge," the writer says," that a Manufacture maketh fewer poor, but ratherthe contrary. For tho' it sets the poor on workwhere it finds them, yet it draws still more toTEXTILESI49the lace ; and their Masters allow wages so mean,that they are only preserved from starving whilstthey can work; when Age, Sickness, or Deathcomes, themselves, their wives or their children aremost commonly left upon the Parish; which is thereason why those Towns (as in the Weald of Kent)whence the clothing is departed, have fewer poorthan they had before."'--l Reasons for a Lrmrted Eqortahon of WOO~, 1677