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The Lowell mill girls were young female workers who came to work in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The workers initially recruited by the corporations were daughters of New England farmers, typically between the ages of 15 and 35. [ 1 ]
Lowell was a planned mill town. Under the Lowell System, the company recruited young women (15-35) from New England farms to work in the mills. The companies built boardinghouses managed by older women, often widows to provide meals and safe places to live.
However, labor and political pressure on the Lowell textile corporations was so great that in 1847 the mills shortened the workday by 30 minutes. As the labor reform movement persisted the Lowell textile companies again reduced the hours of labor to eleven in 1853 and ten in 1874. [2] Bagley was also involved with other social justice movements.
Eventually, cheaper and less organized foreign labor replaced the mill girls. Even by the time of the founding of Lawrence in 1845, there were questions being raised about the viability of this model. [6] One of the leading causes of this transition to foreign labor and the demise of the Lowell system was the coming of the Civil War.
The majority of women operatives fighting for labor reform in the 1840s also stood against slavery, denouncing it the many letters, articles and poetry in Voice; indeed, the women of Lowell became known as the "Pretty Friends of the Slave", and the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association participated officially in several antislavery meetings. [31]
Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president in the U.S. and she made her historic run in 1872 – before women even had the right to vote! She supported women's suffrage as well as welfare for the poor, and though it was frowned upon at the time, she didn't shy away from being vocal about sexual freedom.
The Lowell system, also known as the Waltham-Lowell system, was "unprecedented and revolutionary for its time". Not only was it faster and more efficient, it was considered more humane than the textile industry in Great Britain by "paying in cash, hiring young adults instead of children, and by offering employment for only a few years and providing educational opportunities to help workers ...
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