Female Labour Power

The cotton industry was the first large-scale factory system to emerge during the industrial revolution, and as such there were no set business practices for employers or employees to follow in the organisation of the shop floor. In this book, Janet Greenlees argues that this situation provided workers in both Britain and the United States with a unique opportunity to influence decisions about work patterns and conditions of labour, and to set the precedent for industries that were to follow. Furthermore, data relating to the mass employment of women in the cotton industries, is used to challenge many of the tacit assumptions of women's passivity as workers that pervade the current literature.

Janet Greenlees is Lecturer in History at Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Contents: General editor's preface; Women, work and cotton manufacturing; Organising the factory: manufacturers' choices; The choices for work in textile communities; Millwork: pay, work and equity; A time to work; Collective action; Gender, health and working conditions; Conclusion: women's impact on industrial development; Bibliography; Index.