The 1800s and 1900s were a time of development in new class structures, family dynamics, gender roles, urbanization, and city life in industrialized countries.

Class Structures

• Middle class began to emerge in industrial cities towards the end of the 19th century
• Before - two major classes - Aristocrats: born into wealth and privilege - Commoners: born in working classes
• Working class made up about 80% of population
• New urban industries required more "white-collared" jobs - business people, shopkeepers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.
• 300 retail shops in 1875 ... 2,600 shops by 1890 - proof of growing middle class and idea of capitalism (country's industry is controlled by private owners for profit, rather than the state)
• Middle class could afford to hire servants - from 1851 to 1871, number of domestic servants increased from 900,000 to 1.4 million
• Wages for British workers doubled in fifty years between 1850 and 1906
• Food was the largest budgetary item
• Most middle class families rented rather than owned houses; contained tiny rooms on the top floor for servants
• The working class consisted of people who made their living by physical labor and did not employ domestic servants
• The highest level were construction bosses and factory foremen
• The unskilled were day laborers such as longshoremen, teamsters, and "helpers", and domestic servants; teenagers would have these jobs
• In Britain in 1911, one in seven employed persons was a domestic servant; most were women aged between 15 and 20.

Family Dynamics

"I have had twelve children altogether. I thought you were asking only of those who worked at the mill. There were five that died before they were a quarter of a year old. . . . " - Jane Goode, a working-class mother, testified before the British Factory Commission in 1833. Her life shows the unfortunately common death rate of infants.

• Work and home life separated - men earned money for their families, while women took care of the home
• Many factory workers were initially women, but most of them were young and would quit when they married.
• Children often worked to earn some income for the family. Many began work by age 10 or 12 .
• Beginning of the 19th century - most male children stayed in the same occupations their fathers were in.
• Later in the century - the family decided what trade would be best.
• When the father was unemployed, family roles would be reversed - the wife and children would bring home wages while the husband tended to the household.

"The children began to grow up. The house prospered - we then had a small business selling food and drinks. The mother and daughters took care of that. In 1907, my two sons began to work with me . . . From this time on, we emerged little by little from our former poverty" -JOSEPH VOISIN, A FRENCH CARPENTER

Synthesis - National Consumers’ League (1899) and the National Child Labor Committee (1904) - shared goals of challenging child labor, including anti-sweatshop campaigns. The National Child Labor Committee worked to end child labor and to provide free, obligatory education for all children. It peaked in the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set federal standards for child labor.

Gender Roles

Jobs for Women

• A seamstress was the most highly respected job a woman at the time could obtain (could help to better her marriage prospects).
• Seamstresses often worked out of their own homes, and had great freedom over their work - could choose which assignments to take, and when to work.
• Negative side of being a seamstress - work was the least well paid of all the options open to women, and it could be sporadic
• Also has to undergo a two year apprenticeship, during which the woman is not paid
• Second most respected option was to work as a domestic servant
• Many domestic servants used the opportunity to study and learn upper class manners and behavior
• Factory work was the best paying job a woman could obtain