What is this about?
Social effects of industrialization
How Cities Changed
- The population of cities exploded due to an influx migrants from rural areas to urban cities
- Infrastructure couldn’t keep up with this influx so tenements were built
- These were apartment buildings hastily constructed that were unsanitary and in which people were crammed
- These buildings were often owned by factory owners themselves
- These horrible living conditions created breeding grounds for disease
- Ex: cholera (spread through contaminated water)
- From these tenements, there was no sewage: waste was dumped onto the streets or into the River Thames
- Cities later improved sewage to prevent these issues
The Rise of a Middle Class
- Despite the crummy conditions of the working class, overall the standard of living under this time period grew
- We also see the rise of a new class: the middle class
- They were often managers and were literate and had an education
- Rise of white collar workers who went to the office to do their management jobs
Effect on Family Structure
- Before Industrial Revolution, most people worked on farms in which the whole family worked together
- Now, they go to work and are separated from each other and are only together for a few parts of the day
- Fractured the family
Effect on Women’s Lives
- Working class women often worked in the factories as well
- Middle class women usually stayed home to raise children
Cult of Domesticity
- Advertising and consumer culture that idealized women as housekeepers
- “Women should buy this soap to please the family!”
- This Cult of Domesticity rose from mid to late 1800s
- Said woman’s main goal was to make the home a haven for the weary husband working in the factories and to take care of the kids
- This ideology also led to a decline in the number of women working in the factories
Environmental Effects of Industrialization
- Because fossil fuels like coal and petroleum powered the Industrial Revolution, toxic air pollution would rise
- Could choke the people living in the city and could lead to deadly respiratory diseases
- New word in English: smog
- Combination of smoke and fog
- Water also became contaminated as waste, both industrial and human, was dumped in the rivers
- Caused diseases like cholera