揽瓜阁阅读做题小分队第159天 Lowell纺织女工 - ChaseDream

Nearly all the workers of the Lowell textile mills of Massachusetts were unmarried daughters from farm families. Some of the workers were as young as 10. Since many people in the 1820s were disturbed by the idea of working females, the company provided well-kept dormitories and boardinghouses. The meals were decent and church attendance was mandatory. Compared to other factories of the time, the Lowell mills were clean and safe, and there was even a journal, The Lowell Offering, which contained poems and other material written by the workers, and which became known beyond New England. Ironically, it was at the Lowell mills that dissatisfaction with working conditions brought about the first organization of working women.

The mills were highly mechanized, and were in fact considered a model of efficiency by others in the textile industry. The work was difficult, however, and the high level of standardization made it tedious. When wages were cut, the workers organized the Factory Girls Association. 15,000 women decided to “turn out,” or walk off the job. The Offering, meant as a pleasant creative outlet, gave the women a voice that could be heard by sympathetic people elsewhere in the country, and even in Europe. However, the ability of the women to demand changes was severely circumscribed by an inability to go for long without wages with which to support themselves and help support their families. This same limitation hampered the effectiveness of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA), organized in 1844.

No specific reform can be directly attributed to the Lowell workers, but their legacy is unquestionable. The LFLRA’s founder, Sarah Bagley, became a national figure, testifying before the Massachusetts House of Representatives. When the New England Labor Reform League was formed, three of the eight board members were women. Other mill workers took note of the Lowell strikes, and were successful in getting better pay, shorter hours, and safer working conditions. Even some existing child labor laws can be traced back to efforts first set in motion by the Lowell mills women.

1. According to the passage, which of the following contributed to the inability of the workers at Lowell to have their demands met?
(A) The very young age of some of the workers made political organization impractical.
(B) Social attitudes of the time pressured women into not making demands.
(C) The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association was not organized until 1844.
(D) Their families depended on the workers to send some of their wages home.
(E) The people who were most sympathetic to the workers lived outside of New England.

2. The author of the passage implies that the efforts of the women workers at the Lowell mills ______.
(A) were of less direct benefit to them than to other workers
(B) led to the creation of child labor laws that benefited the youngest workers at the Lowell mills
(C) forced the New England Labor Reform League to include three women on its board
(D) were addressed in the poetry included in The Offering
(E) were initially organized by Sarah Bagley

3. The author uses the word “Ironically” in the first paragraph to indicate that _______.
(A) none of the people who ran the Lowell mills expected that the workers would organize to express dissatisfaction with working conditions
(B) the women who worked at the Lowell mills did not realize how fortunate they were to work at such a place
(C) it could be considered surprising that an early effort to demand better working conditions began in an environment that was especially designed to promote worker satisfaction
(D) the people who created the working environment for the women at the Lowell mills did not really understand what it was they needed
(E) it was unusual for women workers of the time to organize, regardless of their work environment

4. The primary purpose of the passage is to do which of the following?
(A) Describe the labor reforms that can be attributed to the workers at the Lowell mills
(B) Criticize the proprietors of the Lowell mills for their labor practices
(C) Suggest that the Lowell mills played a large role in the labor reform movement
(D) Describe the conditions under which the Lowell mills employees worked
(E) Analyze the business practices of early American factories