Living and Working Conditions

1. Living and Working Conditions The Industrial Revolution

2. New Classes • New Middle Class • Those who hold and invest capital • Industrial entrepreneurs, merchants, professionals etc. • Working Class • Those who work in order to obtain capital • Wage labourers • Dependant on the daily wage in order to survive

3. Growth of Cities • Great numbers of people moving into the city • Need to find work and housing • Workers need/want to live close to work • Homes and factories being built in close proximity to each other • All workers of a specific trade lived together • Ex. Mining towns

4. Living Conditions of the Working Class • Working class separated from the middle class • Barren • Could not afford luxuries or sometimes even necessities • Overcrowded • Numerous families living in one bedroom • 8-10 people

5. Living Conditions of the Working Class • Morals • Appropriate for married couples and siblings to share a room • Inappropriate for both sexes to share a room if they have no relationship to each other • Overcrowded housing caused this • Who’s fault is it that the working class is so ‘immoral’?

6. Working Conditions • Family wage economy • Entire families working • Couples work with their children • Older children can contribute to family wage or go off on his/her own • All family members have economic freedom • Changes family dynamics

7. Improved or Damaged? • Did industrialization improve or damage the lives of ordinary people?

8. Improved or Damaged? • No • About 50% of all children of working families die before the age of 5 • Long work hours (17 hours) • Rapid pace of work • Living and working conditions • Dangerous, crowded and unsanitary

9. Improved or Damaged? • Yes • Higher life expectancy • Economic freedom for women • Growing independence for young people