Chapter 23: Life in The Emerging Urban Society in the 19th Century

Click here to download Chapter 23 Study Guide

Ch 23: Life in The Emerging Urban Society in the 19^th Century

Taming the City

·      ERPN cities centers of gov, culture, and large scale commerce

·      Congested, dirty, unhealthy

·      Beginning early 19^th c, IR took these realities to unprecedented levels

·      Rapid urban growth worsened long standing overcrowding and unhealthy living conditions and posed a challenge for society

·      Would require full scale efforts of gov leaders, city planners, reformers, scientists, and reform-minded citizens to tame the savage traditional city

Industry and the Growth of Cities

·      Main causes of poor quality of urban life: pervasive poverty, lack of medical knowledge, and deadly overcrowding

o   This had existed for many centuries

·      No public transportation à ppl needed to live closely to shops and markets, dense housing conditions à more likely to die from spread of infectious disease than in the rural areas

·      More ppl died than were born in larger towns, population was maintained only by steady stream of newcomers from rural areas

·      IR did not create bad conditions, but did reveal those conditions more than before

o   Steam engine: freed industrialists from dependence on streams and rivers à moved towards urban areas

§  Had better shipping facilities and better supplies of coal and raw material

§  Many hands wanting work in the cities

§  Advantage for a manufacturer to have other factories nearby to supply business’s needs and buy its products

·      IR brought expansion into already overcrowded and unhealthy cities

·      Challenge of urban environment was felt first in Brit

o   1820s-1830s populations of some cities were increasing 40-70% each decade

·      Early 19^th c cities in Brit: using every scrap of land to the fullest

o   No parks/open areas

o   Building erected on smallest possible lots to pack in max number of ppl

o   Narrow houses wall to wall w/o front or back and separated by only a small alley

o   6-10 ppl per room

·      Highly concentrated urban populations lived in very unsanitary and unhealthy conditions

o   Open drains and sewers

o   Primitive toilet facilities

o   200 ppl shared outhouse

o   Overflowed and seeped into cellar dwellings

o   “Millions of English men, women, and children were living in shit” LOLOL

·      Who/what was responsible for these awful conditions

o   Tremendous pressure of more ppl and total absence of public transportation

§  Ppl had to jam themselves together if they wanted to walk to shops and factories

o   Gov in Brit both local and national was slow to provide sanitary facilities and establish building codes

§  Slow pace due to a need to explore and ID what precisely should be done than to rigid middle class opposition to gov action

§  Continental cities were just as bad

o   Legacy of rural housing conditions in preindustrial society combined with ignorance

§  Housing was low on newcomer’s list of priorities, and many ppl carried filth of mud floor and dung of barnyard with them to the city

§  Ordinary ppl generally took dirt for granted and didn’t wash

The Advent of the Public Health Movement

·      Middle of 19^th c, ppl’s fatalistic acceptance of their overcrowded, unsanitary conditions began to give way to a growing interest in reform and improvement

·      Edwin Chadwick: early reformer, one of commissioners charged with administration of relief to paupers under Britain’s revised Poor Law of 1834

o   Follower of philosopher Jeremy Benthan whose approach to social issues, called utilitarianism, had taught that public problems ought to be dealt with on a rational, scientific basis and according to the “greatest good for the greatest number”

o   Became convinced that disease and death actually caused poverty

§  Sick worker was an unemployed workers and an orphaned child was a poor child

o   Believed disease could be prevented by cleaning up the urban environment, his “sanitary idea”

·      Chadwick collected detailed reports form local Poor Law officials on the “sanitary conditions of the laboring population” and published is findings in 1842

o   This widely publicized evidence proved that disease was related to filthy environmental conditions, which were in turn caused largely by lack of drainage, sewers, and garbage collection

·      Chadwick believed that the stinking poop/pee masses of communal outhouses could be dependably carried off by water through sewers at less than 1/20 the cost of removing it by hand

o   Cheap iron pipes and tile drains of industrial age would provide running water and sewage for all sections of town, not just the wealthy ones

·      1848: Cause strengthened by epidemic of cholera in 1836, Chadwick’s report became the basis of Brit’s first public health law, which created a national health board and gave cities broad authority to build modern sanitary systems

·      Public health movement won dedicated supporters in the US, France, and Germany from the 1840s on

o   Govs accepted at least limited responsibility for the health of all citizens and their programs broke decisively with age old fatalism

·      By 1860-70s, ERPN cities were making real progress toward adequate water supplies and sewerage systems, city dwellers were beginning to reap the reward of better health, and death rates began to decline

The Bacterial Revolution

·      Improved sanitation in cities promoted a better quality of life and some improvements in health care, but effective control of communicable disease required a great leap forward in medical knowledge and biological theory

·      Early reformers were handicapped by the miasmatic theory of disease that ppl contract disease when they breathe bad odors of decay and putrefying excretement

·      1840-50s, doctors and public health officials pinpointed role of bad drinking water in transmission of disease and suggested that contagion was spread through filth and not caused by it, thus weakening the miasmatic idea

·      Breakthrough was through the development of the germ theory of disease by Louis Pasteur, a French chemist who studied fermentation

o   Using his microscope to develop a test that brewers could use to monitor fermentation processes to avoid spoilage, Pasteur found that fermentation depended on the growth of organisms and that the activity of these organisms could be suppressed by heating the beverage, by pasteurization

o   Implication was that specific diseases were caused by specific living organisms, germs, and that those organisms could be controlled in ppl as well as in drinks

·      By 1870 the work of Pasteur and others had demonstrated the general connection between germs and disease

o   German country doctor Robert Koch and his coworkers developed cure cultures of harmful bacteria and described their life cycles

o   Over the next 20 yrs, researchers ID’d the organisms responsible for disease after disease

o   Discoveries led to development of effective vaccines

·      Acceptance of germ theory brought about dramatic improvements in the deadly environment of hospitals and surgery

o   Surgeon Joseph Lister grasped the connection between aerial bacteria and the problem of wound infection

§  Reasoned that a chemical disinfectant applied to a wound dressing would “destroy the life of the floating particles”

§  Antiseptic principle worked wonders

o   1880s, German surgeons developed the more sophisticated practice of sterilizing not only the would but also hands, instruments, clothing, and anything that entered the operating room

·      Achievements of the bacterial revolution coupled with the public health movement saved millions of lives, particularly after about 1880

o   Mortality rates began to decline dramatically in ERPN countries

o   Diseases vanished

·      City dwellers benefited especially from these developments

o   By 1910 a silent revolution had occurred: death rates for ppl of all ages in urban areas were generally no greater than those for ppl in rural areas, and sometimes were lower

Improvements in Urban Planning

·      In addition to public health improvements in 19^th c cities, more effective urban planning was a major key to a better quality of life

o   France took lead during rule of Napoleon III who sought to promote welfare of all his subjects through gov action

o   Believed that rebuilding much of Paris would provide employment, improve living conditions, and testify to the power and glory of his empire

o   Placed Baron Georges Haussmann, an aggressive, impatient Alsatian in charge of Paris who bulldozed buildings and opposition

o   In 20 yrs, Paris was completely transformed

·      Paris of 1850 was a labyrinth of narrow, dark streets resulting from overcrowding and a lack of effective planning

o   In a small place, more than 1/3 of the inhabitants lived

o   Terrible slum conditions and high death rates were the facts of life

o   Few open spaces and only two public parks for the entire metropolis

·      For 2 decades, Haussmann and his planners preceded on many interrelated fronts

o   Razed old buildings to cut broad, straight, tree-lined boulevards through the center of the city as well as in new quarters on the outskirts

§  These boulevards permitted traffic to flow freely and afforded impressive vistas; also prevented barricades from being easily built

§  Demolished some of the worst slums

o   New streets stimulated the construction of better housing, especially for the middle class

o   Small neighborhood parks and open spaces were created

o   Improved sewers and built a system of aqueducts

·      Rebuilding Paris was a new model for urban planning and stimulated modern urbanism throughout ERP, particularly after 1870

·      In city after city, public authorities mounted a coordinated attack on many of the interrelated problems of the urban environment

·      Improvements in public health through better water supply and waste disposal often went hand in hand with new blvd construction
Cities such as Vienna and Cologne followed the Parisian example of tearing down and replacing with broad, circular blvds on which new buildings could be built

·      These ring roads and new blvds that radiated outward eased movement and encouraged urban expansion

·      Zoning expropriation laws, which allowed the city to impose major street or sanitation improvements on a reluctant minority, were an important mechanism of the new urbanism

Public Transportation

·      Development of mass public transportation often accompanied urban planning, greatly enhancing urban living conditions toward the end of the 19^th c

o   1870s: many ERPN cities authorized private companies to operate horse-drawn streetcars to carry riders along the growing number of major thoroughfares (from Am’s)

o   1890s: Real revolution: ERPN adopted a streetcar that ran on newly harnessed electricity (from Am’s)

·      Electric streetcars were cheaper, faster, more dependable, cleaner, and more comfortable than horse drawn streetcars

·      Millions of ERPNS (workers, children) hopped on board during the workweek

·      On weekends and holidays, streetcars carried millions on outings

·      Each man, woman, and child was using public transportation four times as often in 1910 as in 1886

·      Good mass transit helped greatly in the struggle for decent housing

o   New blvds and horse drawn streetcars had facilitated a middle class move to better and more spacious housing in the 1860-70s

o   After 1890, electric streetcars meant ppl of even modest means could access new, improved housing

·      Though still congested, the city was able to expand and become less crowded

o   1901: Only 9% was living with over 2 ppl per room

·      Many city gov’s in the early 20^th c were building electric streetcar systems that provided transportation to new public and private housing developments for the working classes beyond the city limits

·      Suburban commuting was born

Rich and Poor and Those in Between

·      As quality of life was improving across ERP, class structure was becoming more complex and diverse

·      Urban society featured many distinct social groups, all of which existed in a state of constant flux and competition
Gap between rich and poor remained enormous and quite traditional, but there were countless graduations between the extremes

The Distribution of Income

·      By 1850 working conditions were improving and so were real wages for the mass of the population and continued to do so until 1914

o   As industrial development quickened after 1850

o   Similar increases in continental states

·      Ordinary ppl took a major step forward in the centuries old battle against poverty, reinforcing efforts to improve many aspects of the human existence

·      Another side to the income coin

o   Greater economic rewards did not eliminate hardship and poverty, nor did they make the wealth and income of the rich and poor significantly more equal

o   Around 1900, richest 5% received about a third of all national income, and riches 20% received 50-60% of national income, bottom 80% got 40-50% of all income, bottom 30% got 10% of all income

·      Middle classes were smaller than they are today

o   Less than 20% of population

o   Upper and middle classes alone received more than half of all income, while the poorest 80% (working class, agricultural laborers) received less altogether than the two richest classes

o   In 19^th c, income taxes on wealthy were light or nonexistent

o   Gap between rich and poor remained enormous at beginning of 20^th c, almost as great as it had been in the late 18^th c

·      Great gap between rich and poor endured in part because the industrial and urban development made society more diverse and less unified

o   Economic specialization enabled society to produce more effectively and in the process created more social groups than it destroyed

o   Almost unlimited range of jobs, skills, and earnings

o   Subclasses blended

o   The tiny elite of the very rich and sizeable mass of dreadfully poor were separated by many subclasses, each filled with individs trying to maintain their own or rise

o   Competition and hierarchy

o   Neither middle classes nor working classes acted as a unified force

o   Social and occupational hierarchy developed enormous variations, but the age old pattern of great economic inequality remained firmly intact

The People and Occupations of the Middle Class

·      By beginning of 20^th c, diversity and range of middle class was huge

·      Not a single middle class, but a confederation of middle cases whose members engaged in occupations requiring mental, rather than physical, skill

·      At top of middle class stood upper middle class

o   Most successful business families from banking, industry, and large scale commerce

o   As they gained income and lost all traces of radicalism after 1848, they were almost irresistibly drawn toward aristocratic lifestyle

o   Although hereditary aristocracy was a tiny minority, it remained wealth, unrivaled social prestige, and substantial political influence

o   In c. and e. ERP, monarchs still continued to hold great power

·      Topmost reaches of upper middle class tended to merge with old aristocracy to form a new upper class at most 5% of population

·      Much of aristocracy welcomed this development

o   After experiencing a sharp decline in its relative income in the course of industrialization, the landed aristocracy had met big business coming up the staircase and was often delighted to trade titles, country homes, and elegance for cash

o   Some of the best bargains were made through marriages to Am heiresses

·      Correspondingly, wealthy aristocrats tended increasingly to exploit their agricultural and mineral resources as if they were business ppl

·      Below wealthy upper middle class were much larger, much less wealthy, and increasingly diversified middle class groups

o   Middle-middle class: Moderately successful industrialists and merchants as well as professionals in law and medicine

§  Solid and quite comfortable but lacking great wealth

o   Lower middle class: Independent shopkeepers, small traders, and tiny manufacturers

·      Both of these traditional elements of the middle class grew modestly with economic development

·      As industry and tech expanded in the 19^th c, a growing demand developed for experts with specialized knowledge, and advanced education soared in importance among the middle classes

o   Engineering emerged from the world of skilled labor as a full-fledged profession with considerable prestige and many branches

o   Architects, chemists, accountants, and surveyors first achieved professional standing in this period

o   Established criteria for advanced training and certification and banded together in organizations to promote and defend their interests

·      Management of large public and private institutions also emerged as a kind of profession as gov’s provided more services and as very large corporations such as RRs came into being

o   Gov officials and many private executives were not capitalists in the sense that they owned business enterprises, but public and private managers did have specialized knowledge and the capacity to earn a good living

o   And they shared most of the values of the business owning entrepreneurs and the older professionals

·      Industrialization also expanded and diversified in the lower middle class

o   Number of indep, property owning shopkeepers and small business ppl grew, and so did the number of white collar employees: a mixed group of traveling salesmen, bookkeepers, store managers, and clerks who staffed the offices and branch stores of large corporations

o   White collar employees were propertyless and often earned no more than the better paid skilled/semiskilled worker did

o   White collar workers were fiercely committed to the middle class and to the ideal of upward nobility

o   In the Balkans, clerks let their fingernails grow long to distinguish themselves from ppl who worked with their hands

·      Relatively well educated but without complex technical skills, many white collar groups aimed at achieving professional standing and the accompanying middle class status

o   Elementary school teachers largely succeeded

§  From being miserably paid to respectable middle class status and income

o   Nurses rose from lower ranks of unskilled labor to precarious middle class standing

o   Dentistry was put in hands of highly trained middle class professionals instead of working class barbers

Middle-Class Culture and Values

·      In spite of growing occupational diversity and conflicting interests, the middle classes were loosely united by a certain style of life and culture

·      Food was the largest item in the household budget, middle class ppl liked to eat well

o   ERPN middle classes consumed meat in abundance, and a well off family might spend 10% of its earnings on meat and 25% on food and drink

·      Spending on food was also great because the dinner party was this class’s favored social occasion

·      Wealthy family might give a party almost every week; modest once a month

·      Middle class wife could cope with the endless procession of meals, courses, and dishes because she had servants and money

o   Employment of at least one full time maid to cook and clean was the clearest sign that a family had crossed the divide separating the working classes from the “servant keeping classes”

o   Greater a family’s income, the greater the number of servants it employed

o   Food/servants together absorbed 50% of income

·      Well fed and well served, the middle classes were also well housed by 1900

o   Many prosperous families rented, rather than owned heir homes
Apartment living with tiny rooms for servants was commonplace

o   Upper middle class purchased country places or built beach houses for weekend and summer use

·      By 1900, the middle classes were also quite clothes conscious

o   Factory, sewing machine, and department store had all helped reduce the cost and expand the variety of clothing

o   Middle class women were attentive to the dictates of fashion

o   Private coaches and carriages, expensive items, were additional signs of social status

·      Rich businessmen devoted less time to business and more time to “culture” and easy living than was the case in less wealthy or well-established families

o   Keystones of culture and leisure were books, music, and travel

o   The long realistic novel, the heroics of composers Wagner and Verdi, the striving of the dutiful daughter at the piano, and the packaged tour to a foreign country were all sources of middle class pleasure

·      In addition to material tastes, the middle classes generally agreed upon a strict code of behavior and morality

o   Laid great stress on hard work, self discipline, and personal achievement

o   Men and women who fell into crime or poverty were generally assumed to be responsible for their own circumstance

o   Christian morality was reaffirmed by this code and was preached tirelessly by middle class ppl

o   Drunkenness and gambling were denounced as vices; sexual purity and fidelity were celebrates as virtues

o   Middle class person was supposed to know right from wrong and was expected to act accordingly

The People and Occupations of the Working Classes

·      About four out of five ppl belonged to the working classes at the beginning of the 20^th c

·      Many members of the working classes, people whose livelihoods depended primarily on physical labor and who did not employ domestic servants, were still small landowning peasants and hired farm hands

o   Especially true in e. Europe

o   In w. and c. Europe, the typical worker had left the land

§  Brit, less than 8% worked agriculture

§  Germany, only 25%

§  France, less than 50% depended on the land

·      Urban working classes were even less unified and homogenous than the middle classes

o   Economic development and increased specialization expanded traditional range of working class skills, earnings, and experiences

o   Old sharp distinction between highly skilled artisans and unskilled manual workers broke down

o   Highly skilled printers and masons well as unskilled dock workers and common laborers continued to exist

o   But between the extremes were ever more semi skilled groups, many of which were factory workers and machine tenders

o   Skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled workers developed widely divergent lifestyles and cultural values and their differences contributed to a keen sense of social status and hierarchy within the working classes

o   Great variety and limited class unity

·      Highly skilled workers, 15% of the working class became known as the labor aristocracy

o   Earned twice as much as the unskilled worker

o   The most “aristocratic” of the highly skilled workers were construction bosses and factory foremen, men who’d risen from the ranks are were fiercely proud of their achievement

o   Labor aristocracy also included members of the traditional highly skilled handicraft trades that had not been mechanized or placed in factories, like cabinetmakers, jewelers, and printers

·      Labor aristocracy as a whole was under constant long term pressure

o   Gradually, factory methods were being extended to more crafts, and many skilled artisans were replaced by lower paid semiskilled factory workers

o   Traditional woodcarvers/watchmakers virtually disappeared, as the making of furniture and timepieces took place in factories

o   Labor aristocracy was consistently being enlarged by new kinds of skilled workers such as shipbuilders and railway locomotive engineers

o   Labor elite remained in a state of flux as individs and whole crafts moved in and out of it

·      To maintain precarious standing, upper working class adopted distinctive values and straitlaced, almost puritanical behavior

o   Like the middle classes, the labor aristocracy was strongly committed to the family and to economic improvement

o   Saved money regularly, worried about children’s education, valued good housing

o   Wives seldom sought employment outside the home

o   Despite the similarities, skilled workers viewed themselves not as aspirants to the middle class, but pacesetters and natural leaders of the working classes

o   Aware of degradation below them, they practiced self-discipline and stern morality

o   Generally frowned on heavy drinking and sexual permissiveness

·      Below labor aristocracy was an enormously complex sector of the labor world, both semiskilled and unskilled urban workers

o   Workers in established crafts: carpenters, brick layers, pipe fitters, were near the top of the semiskilled hierarchy, flirting with the labor aristocracy

o   Large number of the semiskilled were factory workers, including substantial numbers of unmarried women who earned relatively good wages and whose relative importance in the labor force was increasing

o   Below semiskilled workers was a larger group of unskilled workers that included day laborers such as longshoremen, wagon driving teamsters, teenagers, and every kind of “helper”

§  Many had real skills and performed valuable services, but were unorganized and divided, united only by the common fate of meager earnings

o   Same lack of unity characterized street vendors and market people: self employed workers who competed savagely with each other and with the established shopkeepers of the lower middle class

·      One of largest components of unskilled group was domestic servants, whose number grew steadily in the 19^th c

o   Great majority were women

o   Throughout ERP and Am, many female domestics in the cities were recent migrants from rural areas

o   Domestic service was hard work at low pay with limited personal indep and danger of sexual exploitation

o   In low middle classes: Unending routine of babysitting, shopping, cooking, and cleaning

o   In high middle classes: girl was at bottom of rigid hierarchy of status conscious butlers and housekeepers

·      Domestic servants had real attractions for “rough country girls” with strong hands and few specialized skills

o   Marriage prospects were better or more varied in the city

o   Wages higher than agricultural work

o   Young girls and other migrants were drawn to the city by the masses going towards the city, the bright lights, the sense of something going on

·      Many young domestics from the countryside made successful transitions to working class wife and mother

o   With an unskilled or unemployed husband, a growing family, and limited household income, many working class wives had to join the broad ranks of working women in the sweated industries

§  Flowered after 1850 and resembled the old putting out and cottage industries of earlier times

o   Women normally worked at home and were paid by the piece

o   They and their children earned paltry wages and lacked any job security

o   Some women decorated dishes or embroidered linens, or took in laundry

o   Majority made clothing, especially after advent of sewing machine

o   An army of poor women, usually working at home, accounted for much of the inexpensive and ready made clothes in dept stores and tiny shops

Working-Class Leisure and Religion

·      In spite of the hard physical labor and lack of wealth, the urban working classes sought fun and recreation

o   Drinking was the fave activity

§  For middle class moralists, drinking seemed to be the curse of modern age – a sign of social dislocation and popular suffering

§  Drinking did have destructive effects, causing dispute and misery

§  Heavy drinking problems declined in the late 19^th c as it became less socially acceptable

§  Decline reflected in part the moral leadership of the upper working class

§  But drinking also became more publically acceptable

·      Cafes and pubs were bright and friendly

·      Working class polit activities were in pubs/taverns

·      Social drinking in public places by married couples or sweethearts became an accepted and widespread practice for the first time

·      Greater participation by women helped civilize the world of drinking

o   Sports and music halls

§  Decline in “cruel sports” such as bullbaiting and cockfighting occurred by late 19^th c

§  Instead filled with modern, commercialized spectator sports, racing and soccer were the most popular

§  Great deal of gambling on sports events

§  Deciphering racing forms was a great incentive for literacy

§  Music halls and vaudeville theaters (working class operas) were enormously popular in ERP

·      Religion continued to provide working ppl with solace and meaning

o   18^th c vitality of popular religion exemplified by Pietism and Methodism carried over into the 19^th c

o   Many historians see the early 19^th c as an age of religious revival

o   But they also recognize that by the last few decades of the 19^th c, a considerable decline in both church attendance and church donations was occurring in most ERPN countries

o   Seems clear this decline was greater for the urban working classes than for their rural counterparts or for the middle classes

·      Why did working class attendance decline?

o   Construction of churches failed to keep up with the rapid growth of urban population, especially in the new working class neighborhoods

o   Equally important, was the fact that throughout the 19^th c, both Cath and Prot churches were normally seen as them saw themselves – conservative institutions defending social order and custom

o   Thus as ERPN working classes became more politically conscious, they tended to see the established “territorial church” as allied with their political opponents

o   Especially the men of the urban working classes developed vaguely anti church attitudes, though they remained neutral or positive toward religion

o   Tended to regard regular church as attendance as not part of urban working class culture

·      Pattern was diff in the US

o   Most churches preached social conservatism in the 19^th c

o   But because church and state had always been separate and because there was also a host of competing denominations and even diff religions, working ppl ID’d churches much less with the polit and social status quo

o   Individ churches in the US were often closely ID’d with an ethnic group, rater than with a social class, and churches thrived in part as a means of asserting ethnic ID

o   Same process did occur in ERP if the church wasn’t linked with the state and was a focus of ethnic cohesion

§  Irish Cath churches in Brit and Jewish synagogues in Russ

The Changing Family

·      Urban life brought changes to the family

·      By 2^nd half of 19^th c, the fam had stabilized considerably after the disruption of the late 18^th and early 19^th c

·      Home became more important for both men and women

·      Role of women and attitudes toward children underwent substantial change, and adolescence emerged as a distinct stage of life

·      Affected all social classes in varying degrees

Premarital Sex and Marriage

·      By 1850 lengthy courtship and mercenary marriage was dead among working classes

·      In its place the ideal of romantic love triumphed

·      Couples were more likely to come from diff, distant towns and to be nearly the same age, indicating romantic sentiment was replacing tradition and financial considerations

·      Economic considerations in marriage began to decline among middle classes after 1850 but did not disappear altogether

o   In France, dowries and elaborate marriages were common among midd classes

o   Remained for many fams life’s most crucial financial transaction

o   Led midd class men in France to marry late to establish economic success and choose younger women

o   Age differences between husband and life became a source of tension in many midd class marriages

·      Young midd class woman’s romantic life was carefully supervised by her mother, who guarded virginity and hunted for proper marriage

·      After marriage, midd class morality sternly demanded fidelity

·      Midd class boys were watched too, but not as vigilantly

·      By the time they reached late adolescence, they had usually attained considerable sexual experience with maids or prostitutes

·      In early 19^th c, sexual experimentation before marriage triumphed for society as a whole, as did illegitimacy

o   1750-1850: illegitimacy explosion

o   1/3 births in many large ERPN cities were out of wedlock

o   Rising rate of illegitimacy was reversed in 2^nd half of 19^th c in w.,n., and c. ERP

·      Some observers argued that the shift reflected the growth of Puritanism and a lessening of sexual permissiveness among the married

o   Unconvincing because the percentage of working class brides who were pregnant continued to be high and showed no tendency to decline after 1850

·      In many part of urban ERP around 1900, as many as 1 woman in 3 was going to the altar an expectant mother

·      Moreover, unmarried ppl almost certainly used the affordable condoms and diaphragms the IR had made available to prevent pregnancy

·      Unmarried young ppl were probs engaging in just as much sex as their parents and grandparents who’d created the illegitimacy explosion

·      But in the later 19^th c, pregnancy for a young single woman (viewed by the couple as the natural consequence of a serious relationship) led increasingly to marriage and the establishment of a 2 parent household

·      Reflected growing respectability of the working classes as well as their gradual economic improvement

·      Skipping out was less acceptable and marriage was less of an economic challenge

·      Urban working class of the late 19^th c became more stable, and that stability strengthened the family as an institution

Prostitution

·      Sexual activity existed outside of committed relationships in the 19^th c as it always had

o   155,000 women in Paris as prostitutes, 750,000 others suspected

·      Men of all classes visited prostitutes but the middle and upper classes supplied much of the motivating cash

·      Thought many middle class men abided by the code of stern puritanical morality, others indulged in prostitutes

·      My Secret Life: the anonymous bio of an English sexual adventurer from the servant keeping classes

o   Devotes his life to living his sexual fantasies

o   Buys his pleasure

o   Reveals dark side of sex and class in urban society

o   Often purchased sex and affection from young girls before and after marriage

o   The huge gap between rich and poor made for every kind of debauchery and sexual exploitation

§  Upper working class shielded daughters

§  For many poor young women, prostitution was a stage of life and not a permanent employment

§  Went on to marry men of their own class and establish homes and families

Kinship Ties

·      Within working class homes, ties to relatives after marriage, kinship ties, were generally very strong

·      Most newlyweds tried to live near their parents, though not in the same house

·      In later 19^th c, ties to mothers, fathers, uncles, and aunts, were more important than ties to unrelated ppl

·      Ppl turned to families for help coping with sickness, unemployment, death, and old age

·      Gov’s provided more welfare service by 1900, but the average couple and their children faced crises

o   Funerals brought sudden demands: clothes, carriages, services

·      Unexpected death or desertion could leave the bereaved or abandoned (widows and orphans) in need of financial aid or a foster home

·      Relatives responded hastily to such crises, knowing that their own time of need and repayment could come anytime

·      Relatives were valuable at less tragic moments

o   Aged relation often moved In to cook and mind the children so the wife could work outside the home

o   Members of a large fam often lived in the same neighborhood and frequently shared dinners, clothing, and information

Gender Roles and Early Feminism

·      Industrialization and the growth of modern cities brought great changes to the lives of ERP women of all classes

·      Particularly consequential for married women, and most women did marry in the 19^th c

·      After 1850, work of most wives became increasingly distinct and separate from that of their husbands

o   Husbands became wage earners in factories and offices

o   Wives tended to stay at home and manage households and care for children

·      Preindustrial pattern among both peasants and cottage workers, in which husbands and wives worked together and divided up household duties and child rearing, declined

·      Instead, as economic conditions improved, most men expected only married women in poor families to work outside the home

·      Many historians stressed that the societal ideal in 19^th c ERP became a strict division of labor by gender and rigidly constructed separate spheres: the wife as the mother and homemaker, the husband as the wage earner and breadwinner

·      This rigid gender division of labor meant that married women faced great obstacles when they needed/wanted to move into the man’s world of paid employment outside the home

o   Husbands were unsympathetic or hostile

o   Well paying jobs were off limits to women

o   A woman’s wages was always less than a man’s, even for the same work

·      Married women were subordinated to their husbands by law and lacked many basic legal rights

o   Eng: wife had no legal ID and hence no right to own property in her own name

o   Wages she might earn went to her husband

o   France: Napoleonic Code enshrined the principle of female subordination and gave the wife few legal rights regarding property, divorce, and custody of the children

·      With all women facing discrimination in education and employment and with middle class women suffering from a lack of legal rights, there is little wonder that some women rebelled and began the fight for equality and the rights of women

·      Their struggle proceeded on two main fronts

o   FIRST: Following women such as Mary Wollstonecraft, organizations founded by middle class feminists campaigned for equal legal rights for women as well as access to higher education and professional employment

§  Argued that unmarried women and middle class widows with inadequate incomes simply had to have more opportunities to support themselves

§  Recognized that paid work could relieve the monotony that some women found in their sheltered middle class existence and put greater meaning into their lives

·      Women’s organizations won some victories in the later 19^th c

o   1882 law giving Eng married women full property rights

o   More women gradually found professional and white collar employment, especially after 1880

·      Progress was slow and hard won

o   Germany before 1900: Women were not admitted as fully registered students at a single university

o   Determined pioneers had to fight with fortitude to break through sexist barriers to advanced education and professional employment

o   In the years before 1914, middle class feminists increasingly focused their attention on political action and fought for the right for women to vote

·      SECOND: Women inspired by utopian and Marxian socialism blazed a second path

o   Scorned programs of middle class feminists

o   Socialist women leaders argued that the liberation of working class women would come only with the liberation of the entire working class through revolution

o   Championed the cause of working women and won some practical improvements, especially in Germany, where socialist movement as most effectively organized

o   In a general way, these different approaches to women’s issues reflected the diversity of classes in urban society

The Importance of Homemaking

·      In recent years some scholars have been rethinking gender roles within the long term development of consumer behavior and household economies

·      ID’d an 18^th c “industrious revolution” that saw many wives turning from work for household consumption (making their own clothes and stuff) to working for cash income to buy manufactured goods

o   In the Industrial era, these scholars have reinterpreted the gender roles associated with separate spheres as rational consumer behavior

o   Argue that the breadwinner homemaker household developed from 1850 onward in order to improve the lives of all family members, especially in the working classes

·      Thus husbands specialized in earning an adequate cash income and wives specialized in managing the home

·      In doing so, the wife was able to produce desirable goods that couldn’t be bought in a market, such as improved health, better eating habits, and better behavior

o   Higher wages from the breadwinner could buy more raw food, but only the homemaker’s careful selection, processing, and cooking would allow the fam to benefit

·      Homemaker’s managerial skills enabled the couple to maximize household well-being

·      Although the reinterpretation of late 19^th c gender roles in terms of a breadwinner homemaker partnership is a matter of debate, it fits well with some key aspects of family life after 1850

o   As women’s horizons narrowed, and as home and children became typical wife’s mainc oncers, her control and influence became increasingly strong throughout ERP

o   Among English working classes, the wife determined how the fam’s money was spent

o   In many fams, the husband gave all his earnings to the wife to manage, and received a small allowance

o   All major domestic decisions, from schooling to selecting furniture, was the decision of a wife

o   In France women had even greater power in their assigned domain; constituted the superior sex

·      Women ruled at home partly because running the urban household was a complicated, demanding, and valuable task

o   2x a day food shopping, penny pinching, etc. was a full time job

·      Working another job for wages had limited appeal to most married women unless the earnings were essential for family survival

·      Still, many married women in working classes did make a monetary contribution to family income by taking in a boarder or doing piecework a home in the sweated industries

·      Wife also guided home because a good deal of her effort was directed toward pampering her husband

o   He had meat while she had bread

o   He relaxed by fire while she washed dishes

·      Woman’s guidance of household went hand in hand with increased pride and emotional importance of home and family

o   Home she ran was a warm shelter in a hard urban world

o   Home and fam was what life was all about by 1900

·      Married couples developed stronger emotional ties to each other

o   Even in comfortable classes, marriages in the late 19^th c were based more on sentiment and sexual attraction than they had been earlier in the c, as money and financial calculation declined in importance

o   Affection and eroticism became more central to the couple after marriage

·      Gustave Droz, whose bestselling Mr., Mrs., and Baby saw love within a marriage as the key to human happiness

o   Condemned men who made marriage sound dull and practical or men who were exhausted by prostitutes and who wanted their young wives to be little angels

o   Urged women to follow their hearts and marry men more nearly their won age

·      Many French manuals of the late 1800s stressed that women had legit sexual needs, such as the “right to orgasm”

o   Perhaps the French were a bit more enlightened in these matters than other nationalities

·      But the rise of public socializing by couples in cafes and music halls suggests a more erotic, pleasurable intimate life for women throughout Western society

·      Helped make the woman’s role as a mother and homemaker acceptable and even satisfying

Child Rearing

·