The industrial revolution caused a massive influx of farm workers into urban cities, their farms having been modernized by the seed drill, they came looking for work. mainly unskilled and semi-skilled labor like the textile industry or coal mining industry. After, workers began to demand a higher working condition and higher living condition. People began advocating government reform on things like work hours and child labor, forming things like unions. Some supporters of more radical ideas advocated gender equality and electoral equality, saying that was vital to better life in the working class. As for another conservative group, they clung to laissez-faire, believing it would work the same for the lower classes and did not advocate reform. …show more content…
The working class, being individuals, advocated reform in the factory/mining industry. An example of someone speaking out in a time of injustice would be Flora Tristan (found in document C). Supporting combined ideas of socialism and feminism, she states that all of the working class must leave behind division and differences and become one voice, and be unified. She says that the working class is the backbone of the nation and they have power to earn their …show more content…
Another example of feminist ideas in working class reform was a woman named Pauline Rolland (Document E). Rolland led women associated with the Voix des femmes (a newspaper aimed at women’s issues) to organize workers' groups to improve the economic situation for working class women. In Document E, Rolland talks about how women are entitled as men do, and that they should be able to be independent and choose their work themselves and should not be limited to their homes. Both Tristan and Rolland are important, one reason is that they’re both French. The french revolution/enlightenment somewhat stunted the feminist movement and oppressed women. (Do note there were feminist ideas during this time, none were acted upon though. Example: Vindication of the Rights of Women, by Mary Wollstonecraft). But during the succeeding movement in France, women’s rights and the feminist movement become more