Blog #8

Textbook Chapter 5



1. What were the most significant developments in women’s wage labor in the late
nineteenth century? How did they affect working-class, middle-class, and elite women?


The most significant developments in women's wage labor in the nineteenth century was that it gave the ground work for women's working rights. Now women were choosing to work in factories, making garments instead of working in the agricultural field. The only women who were working in the agricultural field were the newly freed black southern women. The working class women mostly were working in factories where they were making garments. But that work was soon turning into a sweat shop. The upper-class woman's job was basically to spend her husbands money. As in they had to decorate their houses with elegant and expensive furniture from Europe. Throw lavish parties. Basically their job was to show off their husbands wealth. The middle-class women did the same as the upper-class women but only at a more moderate level. As in they would cut down on their costs but they basically still bought the good furniture and threw similar parties as the upper-class women.



Textbook Chapter 6



2. What is the importance of the images on page 345 for understanding Native American women’s experience during the era of western consolidation?


The importance of the before and after pictures on page 345 for understanding the Native American women's experience during the time of western consolidation was that even though these girls were put in a boarding school and forced to sit in chairs, dress like the white women, and behave like white women. That still did not take the sad look out of their faces. Even though they used these pictures as ways to show that their methods were successful. It was not. Because as much as they were dressed and behaving like white women. They still did not really understand or know how to read, write. They just portrayed it, as if they knew those things. This also showed how, white men could not except other cultures and beliefs. That the only way and right way to be is to be like the white people.



Textbook Document Chapter 5



1. What different sorts of women does Bessie Van Vorst meet in the factory, and how and why do their responses to their work vary?


The different types of women Bessie Van Vorst meets in the factor are the bread-winner, semi-bread-winner, and also the woman who works for the luxuries of life. Each type of women were different in the sense of how their work varied from one another. The bread-winner is the women who works to support her family. As in she is the one who is bringing a paycheck home to pay the bills, buy food and clothes for her family. The semi-bread-winner is the women who helps with supporting her family. As in she is not the only one who earns a paycheck. This is pretty much what we have now in our times. As in it is a household when the wife and husband both have jobs to support their household. And the last of the different type of women Bessie Van Vorst met was the women who worked for the luxuries of life. As in she did not need to work, but she still did, so she can buy herself expensive clothes, jewelry, etc....



2. Why does Van Vorst conclude that working women are passive in accepting their working conditions and unwilling to stand up for themselves in the way of working men? Do you think she is right?


Bessie Van Vorst concluded that working women were passive in accepting their working conditions and were unwilling to stand up for themselves in the way of working men, because they were afraid that they would lose their jobs. As in since they were making some money they did not want to risk what little of a paycheck they got. Most of these girls were the bread-winners and since they had to support their families, they did not want to risk being fired from their current job. The other type of girls were the semi-bread-winners and they also did not want to risk losing their jobs. They did not want to lose their jobs for the same reasons as the women who were the bread-winners. Bessie Van Vorst is right in that they were afraid of losing their job and that is why they were passive. Even though they were not treated right and were treated unfairly, they preferred to stay with their jobs, just so that they can be able to support their families as much as they can.