During the Industrial Revolution child labor was seen as a major issue. Child labor in America brought about much conflict during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was considered both cruel and abusive while deemed acceptable to most. After many strikes, laws, and protests child labor eventually became illegal. This paper will explore child labor through the view of two iconic activists, Florence Kelley and Maud Wood Park. From Florence Kelley’s involvement in the National Consumer League, to Maud Wood Park’s position in the League of Woman’s Voters both women show how they fought against child labor and successfully promoted to end the inhumane conditions children were being put through. Child labor during the late eighteenth …show more content…
Author, Kathryn Kish Sklar discusses in the novel “Florence Kelley & the Nation’s Work” how Kelley grew up “on an isolated estate just four miles as the crow flies west of Independence Hall; the elms was so secluded during her early years that no one passed by between Thanksgiving and Easter” (Sklar, 27). Sklar senses that this “social solitude” defined Florence Kelley’s childhood and had an important impact on the future she pursued. The text states, “A grim family struggle with infant and childhood illness’s haunt Florence’s childhood” (Sklar, 26). Since she lived with a great deal of grief as a child, she grew up with a huge sense of responsibility. Her strong responsibility guided her pathway in the child labor …show more content…
The group developed a list of minimum working conditions, including minimum pay at $6 per week, a 10-hour day, a six-day week, a locker room, a lunch room, and no children under the age of 14” (O’Dea,1). After other cities began to recognize the harsh conditions children were being put through they began to want change as well. The Consumers League of New York changed into the National Consumers League. Florence Kelley moved to New York and became a director of the National Consumers League. She created the idea of labeling clothes, certifying that they were not manufactured using child labor. Along with that, “She helped organize the National Child Labor Committee and, with Lillian Wald, proposed the creation of a federal commission on children (O’Dea, 1). . She helped them establish sixty-four local consumers’ leagues throughout the United States. Florence Kelley had a very large impact on the National Consumers League. She traveled extensively among them each year to promote policies agreed upon by the national board” (O’Dea). Florence Kelley alone impacted the issue of child