Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Family Unit in Colonial New England, The
Within the marriage relationship, community-prescribed roles and responsibilities are molded to meet the needs of the family, with the male head of household responsible for maintaining social and moral order within the family . There is no such thi...
New Corporate Order, A: Class Violence--Labor vs. Employer--Breaks Out at Work Sites
Despite the collective efforts of workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, working conditions do not improve. Frustration grows, relations deteriorate into a series of violent strikes and labor actions in the railroad, garment, and steel i...
Division of Labor and the Industrial Revolution
American history professor Alice Kessler-Harris talks about the division of labor by gender before and during the Industrial Revolution. "Women's labor is...cheap labor because it's assumed that women do not have to support families and therefore th...
Worlds Apart: Role of Women and Cult of Domesticity, The
A woman staying at home and managing her family's affairs rather than working for wages outside the home becomes an indication that the family has achieved middle-class status. Few immigrant or African-American women have this option. Middle-class w...
Hard Times: Minority Groups Hard Hit During Depression
Blacks in the rural South fall to the bottom of the economic ladder; blacks in the North are first to be thrown into unemployment. Mexicans also lose their jobs when workforces are restructured, particularly in California. There is increasing eviden...
New Corporate Order, A: Beginnings of the Union Movement
Working men and women attempt to fight back against poor working conditions by adopting some of the same tactics their employers use, repeatedly trying to organize themselves in order to force change. Some early unions like the Knights of Labor enjo...
History of Professional Women
American history professor Alice Kessler-Harris traces the history of professional women in the United States, from the colonial period to modern times.
Progressive Era, The: Settlement House Movement, The
Nothing produces greater distress, many reformers believe, than the crowded immigrant neighborhoods of American cities. One response is to create settlement houses like Hull House which Jane Addams and a group of women open in Chicago in 1889. Using...
Master and Slave: Peculiar Institution, The
A slave is legally defined as property, a subordinate position enforced by violence. Although unfree labor is primarily used in the field of agriculture, almost 20% work in cities or towns as skilled artisans, sometimes earning enough to buy their o...
Master and Slave: Life of a Slave
Slaves generally receive enough basic necessities to live and work: corn meal and salt pork to eat, cheap clothing and shoes to wear, and crude cabins in which to live. Life for women in the slave community may take on many different roles, from the...