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

8 INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORYDomestic and family industry existed side by sideduring the middle ages ; for example, brewing, baking,spinning, cheese and butter making were conductedboth as domestic arts and for .industrial purposes.Both were gradually supplanted by capitalisticindustry, the germ of which was apparently introducedabout the thirteenth century, and graduallydeveloped strength for a more rapid advance in theseventeenth century.While the development of capitalistic industrywill always be one of the most interesting subjects forthe student of political economy, its effect upon theposition and capacity of women becomes of paramountimportance to the sociologist.This effect must be considered from three standpoints:-(I) Does the capitalistic organisation of industryincrease or diminish women's productive capacity ?(2) Does it make them more or less successful intheir special function of motherhood ?(3) Does it strengthen or weaken their influenceover morals and their position in the generalorganisation of human society ?These three questions were not asked by the menwho were actors in the Industrial Revolution, andapparently their importance has hitherto escaped thenotice of those who have written chapters of itshistory.Mankind, lulled by its faith in the " eternal feminine" has reposed in the belief that women remainthe same, however completely their environment mayalter, and having once named a place " the home "thinks it makes no difference whether it consists of aworkshop or a boudoir. But the effect of thedifference in the wages, as the same amount of money can be used to support oneindividual in comfort or a family in penury. In modern times the law recognises atheoretic obligation on the part of a man to srlpport his children, but has no powerto divert his wage3 to that purpose. His wages are in fact recognised as his individualproperty. The position of the family was very different in the eeventeenth centuv.Industrial Revolution on home life, and throughthat upon the development and characters ofwomen and upon their productive capacity, deeplyconcerns the sociologist, for the increased productivecapacity of mankind may be dearly bought by thedisintegration of social organisation and a loweringof women's capacity for motherhood.The succeeding chapters will show how the spreadof capitalism affected the productive capacity ofwomen :-(I) In the capitalist class where the energy andhardiness of Elizabethan ladies gave way beforethe idleness a d pleasure which characterised theRestoration period.(2) In agriculture, where the wives of the richeryeomen were withdrawing from farm work and wherethere already existed a considerable number of labourersdependent entirely on wages, whose wives having nogardens or pastures were unable to supply the families'food according to old custom. The wages of suchwomen were too irregular and too low to maintainthem and their children in a state of efficiency, andthrough semi-starvation their productive powers andtheir capacity for motherhood were greatly reduced.(3) In the Textile Trades where the demandfor thread and yarn which could only be producedby women and children was expanding.The convenience of spinning as an employmentfor oddminutes and the mechanical character of itsmovements which made no great tax on eye or brain,rendered it the most adaptable of all domestic artsto the necessities of the mother. Spinning becamethe chief resource for the married women whowere losing their hold on other industries, but itsreturn in money value was too low to render themindependent of other means of support. There islittle evidence to suggest that women shared, inthe capitalistic enterprises of the clothiers during