Title: Work, gender, and family in Victorian England /
Authors: Ittmann, Karl.
Publisher: New York University Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Working class families England Bradford (West Yorkshire) History; Birth control England Bradford (West Yorkshire) History; Family size England Bradford (West Yorkshire) History
Abstract: The industrial revolution radically altered traditional ways of life in many towns and villages. Successive waves of economic and social reorganization forced working-class communities to readjust constantly to new ways of life and work. Many feared the social consequences of such rapid change. These fears focused on the family and its swift transformation by industrialization. The greater economic and social role of women, the changing relationship between parents and children, and the decline of masculine power all played a role in a perceived crisis of the family. Increases in crime, infanticide, abortion, poverty, and the use of birth control were all tied to this concern about the destruction of the family and the resulting social chaos.
Contents: 1. The Worsted Trade and the Development of Bradford. The rise of the worsted industry, 1750-1850. Bradford's economy in the mid-Victorian era. Occupation and class in mid-Victorian Bradford. Management and the problem of costs in the worsted trade. The end of prosperity -- the slump of the 1870s -- 2. Work and Its Discontents. Labor process in the worsted industry. Skill and the reorganization of the worsted trade. The organization of labor in spinning and weaving.