The Life of a Lady

There were a lot of reasons that girls would have wanted to work at a mill in Lowell. It all started with a recruitment process, in which recruiters would go to houses all around the New England area. They would tell the fathers of these girls how good life is, and all of the reasons that these girls should come and work at the factories. The benefit for the girls were that they could earn their own money, and buy their own clothes. This would also give them independence that they had never had before. For the families, they can have money sent home from the girls working at the factories. It is also one less mouth to feed, and for a financially struggling family, the less they have to spend on a child, the better. For the corporation, they had girls that were generally more obedient than boys. Most boys worked on farms anyways, so it was harder to recruit them. Lastly, they didn't have to pay the girls as much as they would have had to pay the boys. Because of this large increase in the speed and ability to manufacture goods, especially fabric,  spinning wheels in the house became obsolete. This made most girls have to work in these mills because it was the only way for them to make money. Over time, many women eventually ended up protesting this because of their unfair conditions. In the 1830's many women quit work at the mills because of a new idea called "separate spheres" which means that the men should do commerce and the women should stay at home.