The Effects of the Lowell System on Society

The factory workers in Lowell raised much controversy in the eighteenth century when "modernization" was taking place in New England. Two concepts were widely held in regards to women at that time. First was the concept of "republican motherhood" which instructed women to stay home and raise children who would be virtuous assets to the republican government. Second, the concept of the "cult of true womanhood" called for women to be pious, pure, submissive, and …

…what a true woman should look like as they looked plain and simple, and especially not very ladylike.(pp.165-166) In conclusion, the Lowell factory girls lives' conflicted with the American ideals for women in the 18th century as they were not reamaining at home where they could preserve their morality and virtue while being protected and watched over, and also as their physical appearnces were the direct opposite of that of a "true lady".