From Farm to Factory: Industrialization in America

Post-bellum America experienced a shift from a rural, agrarian society to an urban, industrial society which caused a conversion in the way families functioned, forced Americans and immigrants alike to adjust to the unsympathetic factory system, and gave career opportunities to women for ages to come. Born in the country, America moved to the city in the decades following the Civil War. As agriculture deteriorated in relation to manufacturing, America could no longer aspire to …

…for "women's jobs" were usually set below those for men's. Laura Clay said that most of the women were young, many of them receiving very small wages, and all of them were withdrawn from the protection of the home, which had been the safeguard for all the preceding generations of women. In conclusion, industrialization and urbanization forever altered the venerable patterns in the traditions of home and the customs of work in post- bellum America.