Social effects: work, class and the family
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Flip to reveal answersName four features of harsh industrial working conditions.
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Question
Name four features of harsh industrial working conditions.
Answer
Long hours (12–14 a day), dangerous unguarded machines, low wages, and harsh factory discipline.
Question
What was the factory system?
Answer
Large workplaces where many workers used powered machines together, working to a fixed clock and bell.
Question
List four poor living conditions in industrial cities.
Answer
Slum housing, overcrowding, pollution from coal smoke and waste, and disease such as cholera.
Question
What was cholera and why did it spread in industrial cities?
Answer
A fast-killing disease caught from water polluted with sewage; it spread because crowded slums had dirty water, causing major outbreaks in the 1830s and 1840s.
Question
Give an example of child labour during industrialization.
Answer
Children as young as six changed spools and cleared jammed threads in cotton mills, or pulled carts and opened air doors in coal mines.
Question
How did women's work change with industrialization?
Answer
Many women earned wages in mills and workshops instead of working alongside the family at home, shifting the family economy toward pooled wages.
Question
What was the family economy under industrialization?
Answer
The household survived by pooling many small wages, including those of women and children, not just a single male earner.
Question
Compare the two new industrial classes.
Answer
The working class owned only their labour and lived in slums; the middle class owned the machines and capital, grew wealthy, and moved to cleaner suburbs.
Question
What is the standard-of-living debate?
Answer
The historians' argument over whether industrial workers gained or lost: optimists say they slowly gained, pessimists say they lost, especially early on.
Question
Compare optimists and pessimists in the standard-of-living debate.
Answer
Optimists stress rising wages and cheaper goods over time; pessimists stress falling health, disease and lost freedom in the early decades.
Question
How did industrialization reshape family life?
Answer
It separated home from the workplace for the first time, as family members left each morning for different mills and mines, slowly reshaping family roles.
Question
What is the best judgement for an essay on the social effects of industrialization?
Answer
The effects were mixed and varied by time, place and job; early decades were harsh, but living standards slowly improved over the long term.
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Full study notes for Social effects: work, class and the family
Topic 12.3 hub
Impact of industrialization
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