1. 80% of the people belonged, to the working Classes by 1900. Workers in eastern Europe still
worked on the land, while those in western and central Europe worked in industries. The
. urbanworkingclasses were less unified and homogenous than the middle classes,as.economic
development and increased specialization expanded.the range.of skills, earnings, and
experiences ~ . Highly skilled artisans and unskil.led manual workers became less distinct.
Skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled workers developed divergent lifestyles and cultural values,
leading to class-consciousness and hierarchy within the working classes. Highly skilled
workers;,'making up 15% of the working classes, became a labor aristocracy, as they earned
two-thirds of the income of the bottom'of.the servant-keeping classes, but that was twice
as much as the earning of unskilled workers. Member of the aristocracy included construction
bosses, factory 'foremen, cabinetmakers, jewelers,and printers.
2. The labor aristocracy was constantly being rocked back and forth by individuals and groups
.coming and going. The upper working class adopted distinctive values and almost perfect
behavior. The labor aristocracy was strongly' committed to the 'family and economic improvement.
The families saved money regularly,·worriedabout their children's education,
and valued good housing. They were humble-people who shunned heavy drinking and sexual
permissiveness: Theywere'quick to find fault with,those below them. They had political
•. and.philosophical beliefs~ ' whether Christian and/or socialist. Beneath the labor aristocracy
. was.semiskilled and unskilled urban workers. Semiskilled workers like carpenters, bricklay-
. ers, and. pipe fitters were at the top financially while others were factory workers. Unskilled
, laborers were longshoremen, wagon,.driving teamsters, teenagers, and helpers. TheY'all had
real skills, performed valuable services, and were unorganized and -divided ... '; i' i:. _. t .
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3: . In Great Britain in 1911, one out bfseven etnployedpeoplewas a domestic servant. Most
. were women, with one out of every three girls between 15 and 20 being a domesti'c servant.
They had to'work hard, received little paYi had limited personal independence, and
were subject to sexual exploitation. They had to babysit, shop, took, and clea,". Rough
country girls with strong hands and few specialized skills were sought after. In the city, marriage
prospects were better, and it paid more than agricultural work.· Many women had to
join the sweating industries to support their household. They normally worked at home,
earned horrible wages, and lacked any job security.' Some did hand decorating while the
majority made clothing, espedallyafter the 'sewing machine was invented; These women
began to ·rival men and eventually. overtake them:j'n skill. ' . , .... ,
4. Drinking was the favorite ·Ieislire-time activitY'of working people. It\ vas a' sign of social di slocation
and' popular suffering, and mostly dragged miserable people even 10wer.·However,
heavy problem drinking declined in the late 1800s as it became less socially acceptable: This
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r. " was,in part due to the moral leadership of the upper working class. At the same time, drinkin'g
became more public and socials, as cafes and pubs became popular. Working-class politi
ical activities occurred in taverns and pubs. Social drinking in public places by married
couples became accepted and widespread. Modern spectator sports like racing and soccer,'
with many people gambling, overtook bullbaiting and cockfighting in popularity. Music halls
and vaudeville theaters were very popularthroughout Europe, Music hall audiences were
greatly mixed. Religion and Christian churches continued to provide working' people with solace
and meaning into the'1800s, though by the last two or three decades, there was a great
decline 'in church attendance and donations. Some scholars believe that this· reflected a.
general de.cline in faith ,and religious belief, while others.do not agree.; G:hristianity played an
increasingly diminishing role in the urban working classes. The construction of churches
failed to keepup.with the rapid growth of urban population, as the urban ·environment undermined,
popular religious impulses. Christian churches were seen~ as defending social order
and custom, making them political opponents to the workingclassesAn the United
States, there were many different churches that were not political or against social ·order.
Instead, the churches were often identified with an ethnic group rather than with a social
class.
1. By 1850,Iengthy courtship and me,rcenarymarriage were very uncommon among the working
class, replaced. by romantic love. Couples were more likely to come from different towns
and to be ~more nearly the same, age.: Economic considerations in marriage ,were· more importantto,
the middle classes after 1850. In ,France, dowries and legal marriage contracts
were common, and marriage was fol' man.y families a crucial financial transaction,. Thus,
;" many middle~c1ass men married late, when they were economically set,andthey married
,younger and less sexually experienced women. In the middle class,' mothers closely supervised
their daughters, while ,boys' were watched but-not as seriously. They had sexual expe:
rience with maids or prostitutes. An illegitimacy ,explosion occurred from 1750to 1850 due
to sexual experimentation. It was notseen as ,immoral andseen,as okay, In the se,condhalf
of the 1800s, more babies were born to married mothers, most likely due to the growth of
puritanism and: a ',~sser:',ingof sexual p.~nllissive~ess among the unmarried;,However, many
people had sex out of marriage and theo · ma~ried. unmarried people u~ed condQmsand diaphragms.
.I n the late 1800s, pregnaf;l,cyfor a youog singlewoman led increasingly to mar- , .
riage qnd the establishment., ora ~wo-parent household, .. ....
2 .. After 1850/most.wives~work became most·distinct than their husbands; Husbands were
wage earners in factories ar'1d offices, while'W.ives stayed home·and managed households
and cared for children., OnlY'in a few occupations did married couples live where they
worked. Factory employment for married women declined as the'practice of, hiring entire
families in the factory ended. With better economic conditions, most men expected married
women to work outside the home only in poor families. This practice became an ideal in labor,
causing ma~ried women to face great injusti,ce when they needed or wanted towork.
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, Husban~s were unsympathetic or hostile. Wo~en were forbidden from well~payingjobs,
. a~qa vyoman's wag~ was mostly,l~ss than a m~n's. . . ". ~
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3. Mar:ried women were subordinated to their husbands by law and lacked basic legal rights. A
wife in England had no legal identity and thus no right to own property in her-own name.
. The. wages she earned ,belonged to her husband. This had also occurred in the Napoleonic
Code in France. A strong feminist movement occurred,. starting with women such as Mary
Wollstonecraft. Organizations founded by middle-class feminists campaigned for equal legal
rights and access to higher edu~ation and professional employm~nt.These women believed
that unmarried wom.en and,middJe-:-class widows with poorjnco.me needed more opportunities
to support themselv,es. They recognized that paid work could relieve the borec!om and
Jack of m~aning that some, women had in their shelter:ed lifestyles. Their work pushed
through the 1882 law giving English married women full property r,ights. In the early 1910s,
, wpmensought.political action and women's suffrage, Socialist women leaders argued,that
the~iberation ,of working-class women would come only with the liberation of the entire
working class. As women became more tied to their homes,;they,became more tied to how
the family spent its money. The ~ife bought goods for he~ husba,nd and.also made all the
major domestic decisions. They ruled the home because,running the urban household was
. complic<;lted, demanding, and v~luable, Shopping,.s~ving money, economizing, cleaning, and
child rearing wer,e a full-time occupation. ,Women ctid not work outside the home'unless
they had to live. Wives also had to pamper their husband.s; ,Married couples developed .
stronger emotional ties to each other, as marriages were now based more on sentiment
and sexual attraCtion. French marriage manuals stressed the legitimacy of women's sexual
nee~s .
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4. . Mothers te,nded tp .Iove and have,concern for their babies. Because babies' died so' early,
women were ~fraid to become emotionally attached. Emotional bonding and a willingness
to make sacrifices for the welfare of the infant were beginning to spread among the comfortable
classes byJ.800, with ordinary mO.thers achieving this as the century progressed.
Mf?thers incre,asingly breast-fed their infants rather t~an payingwet nurses to do so. Mothers
had ,to, sacrific~ freedom to, s~ve lives. This maternal change led to many specialized
books on ~~ild rearing and infant hygiene. Fathers were seen as necessary. less illegitimate
babies were abandoned as foundlings after 1850 in France. Swaddling disappearance altogether.
Women also cared for older chi.ldren an~ adolescents, as European women began to
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li.m.it t he ,num. ber of children they bore in order to care adequately fQr thQse they had. ,., " ~,.;' \ " .;. " . ...:'
Women, wanted smaller family size,S to imp,rove their economic and social position and that
~f their ~hildren. Child~en were not an economica'sset, as parents spent money,an their advantages.
Many parents probably b~came too concerned about their children, subjecting
them to heavy emotional pressure. This caused many children, and adolescents to feel
trapped arid 'desl're greater independence. Biological and medical the'ories at the same told '
' cause'dpare'nts to oeHeve'that their own emotional characteristiCs 'were' passed on t~ their
offspring and that they were directly responsible for any abrio'rrnalitiesi~ a'child. The' youth-
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ful sexual excess of the father could curse future generations. Masturbation was viewed as
evil, as it represented an act of independence and defiance. Diet, clothing, games, and
sleeping were regulated. Girls were discouraged from riding horse and bicycling because
they simulated masturbation. Between 1850 and 1880, there were surgical operations for
children who persisted in masturbating, with various restraining apparatuses becoming
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more popular up to:1905. Mother and child loved each other, but relations between father
and child were necessarily difficult and often tragic. The father was demanding, expecting
the childto succeed,where he had failed and making his love conditional on achievement.
Many sons hated their fathers and ,tried to kill them .
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5. Sigmund Freud observed that mental hysteria could occur due to-bitter early-childhood ex-
., periences wherein thethild :had been forced to repress strong feelings; When these experiences
were'recalled and reproduced under hypnosis or th'rough free will, the patient 'could
be brought to unde'rstand his or her unhappiness and deal with it. Hewas concerned with
the Oedipal tensions; resulting from the son's competition with the fatherfor the mother's
, love'and,affection.' He believed that human behavior is 'motivated by unconscious e'motional
needs whose natllre and origins are kept from conscious aWareness by defense mechan-
, , , ,isms. He concluded that much' unconscious psychological energy is sexual energy, Which is
repressed and controlled byratiorial thinking and"moral ruies. Unlike the middle class, 'who
economically depended on their families, working-Class boys and girls went to work when
, they reached adolescence, where they earned wages on their own and thus greater independence.
If they Were unsuccessful, they could leave home to live cheaply as' paying lodgers
in other' working-class home's. ;
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1. Young middle-class men had more sexual freedom, and that was silently accepted. Most of
the time, male sexual experience was encouraged. Women were prevented from having any
sexual experience unless they were married'. Women had to constantly be doing something
so as not to be tempted: ·For women wlio didn't·marry'young, they turned to prostitution.
2. This was due to social :morality. Men were supposed to have sexulaJ-'experience, as 'they
were considered the' dominant sex and needed the experience for when they received "a
wife. Women were m'ade to be dainty and ladylike to ilitrease thefr chances of being married
to a rich man. Women without sexual experience ,were much more praised bym~h.
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3. There was ~ basic underlying unitY in how society treated both the YQungmen and the
young 'women of the middle class. They were treated as compliments to each other, where
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men should have sexual experience while women shouldn't, where men should be the eco-
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nomic producer While women should manage the household.
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4. I agree th,at it was a bad tirnefor youth. This is du~ to society forcing each gender to' adhere
to a set of rules that they may not want to follow. Men may not want to have se~ with. prostituteS'ormaid
but rathergirls their same age. Girls sl'lQuld hav~ tli~ same amo'unt <;>f sex;ual
freedom as guys .arid be able to date.
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