Scott Kemp
History 13
10/29/2009
The Struggle to Survive
Women’s fight for equality has been ongoing since the beginning of man kind, yet some might say they still haven’t fully reached it. Being a woman in the late 19th century you were given little to no rights in America. But being a woman in that day and age, coming from a different race or ethnicity, that was a whole new story. These people were treated like slaves, in fact, most of them were. The woman’s rights have been an rollercoaster due to the Wars and constitutional amendments restricting women’s rights. Their roles have changes through out the 19th century all the way till the 20th century drastically. Women’s rights can be compared to cultural and ethnic rights as well. They all have been effected through history.
The unskilled immigrants in America had one advantage that led them to jobs. They were unskilled immigrants; so their costs were very cheep. This started to take the jobs from the skilled laborers across the nation. For example; in the 1840’s the boot and shoe industry was ran by skilled independent workers who made custom boots in small shops. Foreign German, English and Irish shoe and boot workers set up trades with each other to help expand their business. There bonds grew close towards one another and would come together through religion and ethnicity. By the 1880’s these skilled workers were no longer needed for there hand craftsman work. Instead the shoe factories grew larger and started to replace the skilled with machines and non skilled workers. The factories started to hire non skilled woman and children to operate the machinery for lower wages. By 1890 more then 30% of the workforce was made up of...