The Industrial Revolution

In class we spent a lot of time discussing the Industrial Revolution. The effects of the Revolution on society, such as the economy, the population, and the income, gender roles, family life, and class structure fascinated me, and I am going to analyze these effects in my post. First, I’m going to talk about how the Industrial Revolution affected Britain’s economy, population, and income. Britain’s economy had greatly increased its production of manufactured goods. In terms of income, the British people dramatically increased their wealth, and their national income. And lastly, the population rapidly expanded, growing from 9 million in 1780, to 21 million in 1851! For the most part, these changes were good, except for the raise in population. The Industrial Revolution made the overcrowding worse in cities by building factories, which drew in many workers in need of a job. Secondly, the Sexual Division of Labor law gave more power to men and put women at a disadvantage, establishing clear gender roles. This law allowed men to emerge as the family’s primary earner, while the women could only find a few jobs, which didn’t pay well. Instead of working, women were expected to do housework, take care of their children, and do craftwork. While this ideal was not uncommon for women of this time, the creation of this law was bad because it suppressed women, and put unmarried women and widows at a disadvantage because they couldn’t rely on a man for money. Thirdly, family life changed over the course of the Industrial Revolution. During the revolution, families came to the mills together, so that they could work together. This was good because it made working in factories in the 1790’s easier, and it made the new surroundings more tolerable, however it was also bad because it enabled young children to work long hours. Lastly, the Industrial Revolution changed the way people thought about social classes by forming a new way of thinking about people. This way was called a paradigm, which said that the well educated, known as the “public” came to see themselves as the middle class, and the “people,” came to be known as the working class. Clearly, the Industrial Revolution had many effects on Britain, and overall these effects were good, however it set the trend for commonly using child labor in factories. Do you agree?