Lowell Mills Girls

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developed by Francis Cabot Lowell, and ran boardinghouses for their workers where girls lived together under the guidance of a morally proper old woman. In these houses, activities were well regulated including the time in which boarders were to retire at night, and a requirement that all attend church on Sunday (Woloch, p. 90). In the mills themselves, the supervisors and overseers were also described as moral and upright, and girls were segregated, except for the supervisors, from all other male employees. The young girls hired to work were also required to be of good moral character (Evans, p. 83, Robinson, p. 44). Women workers traded the traditional requirement of submission to their fathers with their new positions that required submission to their supervisors or overseers. The boardinghouse system attempted to maintain the traditional roles of women as much as possible while still providing the labor the mill owners needed (Kessler-Harris, p. 33-36).

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a boardinghouse (Robinson, p. 29).

Although the New England culture of the time may have permitted young girls some freedom in working for wages, it was more critical of married women doing the same. [Study tutor's comments: Yes! This point is important.] According to Thomas Dublin only 5% of women operatives at Lowell mills were married or widowed (Dublin, p. 89). Robinson implies that she recalled working with married women who may have escaped from unhappy or abusive relationships (Robinson, p. 41).

Along with contributing to the household in general, many workers assisted in the support of siblings. In establishing his ideal mill, one of the goals of Lowell's plan, was to pay ...

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