Emploi

16739 — Women's Fight for Employment Equality. "Lowell Offering. Written Edited and Published by Female Operatives Employed in the Mills." 1844. Pamphlet. The Lowell Offering was a monthly publication run by women working in the Lowell Textile Mill from 1840-1845. Featuring the women's poetry essays and other literary efforts the magazine gave female factory workers the opportunity to share their creative endeavors; for the women who edited and published the periodical the Lowell Offering also provided demonstrable and employable skills in publishing and journalism. This 1844 edition comes from the penultimate year of the publication. It is the earliest piece in the collection. <br/><br/>Lowell solved the problem of labor at his mills by employing young women between the ages of 15 and 35 who became known as "mill girls". Unlike European industries which had access to "large landless urban populations whose reliance on the wage system gave them few economic choices" American companies had to grapple with a small labor supply because the population was small and most preferred farming their own land and the economic independence that came with it. In order to persuade these young women to work at a mill they were paid in cash once "every week or two weeks". In line with the Boston Associates' worldview the mill girls were encouraged to educate themselves and pursue intellectual activities. They attended free lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Quincy Adams and read books they borrowed from circulating libraries. They were also encouraged to join "improvement circles" that promoted creative writing and public discussion. unknown books