Money is Motivation: Women in the Lowell Mills

What motivated women to go to work in the Lowell Mills?

 

 Before the Lowell Mill Experiment, women were not expected to have jobs or do anything other than care for the house and children. When the idea of this experiment came around, mill agents were sent from the factories to recruit young women to work. Times were changing, women could work.

    When these mill agents were sent to towns in the countryside, they would paint a "rosy picture" of the factories in Lowell, trying to appeal to both the father and daughter. Most girls were attracted to the idea of having a little bit of spending money, which they wouldn't have at home. Many fathers were attracted to the idea of money being sent home to help out, with the mortgage for example. These factory girls wanted to have more than their mothers did.
  A girl would also have a better opportunity to find a spouse in a city like Lowell than they would at home. But, if a girl stayed too long, she would be considered undesirable for marriage. Because of this, many girls planned on staying only a few years, enough time to save up for a dowry, before leaving to get married.

  Although these were the main ideas that motivated women to go to Lowell, wage cuts were made often, eventually leading to walk outs and boycotting. It's interesting that the very thing that attracted them there in the first place was the thing to make them leave.

 

Sources: "The Lowell Offering," The American Textile History Museum

               "Lucy Hall Video"

               "Lowell - The Factory in the Garden"

              "View of Lowell, Massachusetts," The American Textile History Museum