Factory workers faced long hours, dirty and dangerous working conditions, and the threat of being laid off.

By the 1800s, working people became more active in politics.

Labor Unions and Reform Laws

Workers joined together in voluntary labor associations called unions to push for reforms.

Unions would speak for all the workers in a particular trade.

They would engage in collective bargaining, negotiations between workers and their employers.

If the factory owners refused to give better working conditions and higher pay, the union members could go on strike.

Those who were skilled workers led the way in forming unions because they had specialized skills which made them more difficult to replace.

Eventually, reformers and unions forced political leaders to look into the abuse caused by industrialization.

Parliament passed laws making it illegal to hire children under 9 years old, and children from the ages of 9-12 could not work more than 8 hours a day.

Making Change

People from 13-17 could not work more than 12 hours a day.

Later women and children were not allowed to work underground.

Laws were also passed for women who had children, by not allowing them to work more than 10 hours a day.

With the fight for rights for women and children, also came the end of slavery in the British West Indies.

Later Britain finally abolished slavery in its whole empire.

End of Slavery

Some were against slavery, others were viewed slave labor as an economic threat.

So, a new class of industrialists developed who supported cheap labor rather than slave labor.

The Industrial Revolution a mixed blessing for women. On one side, factory work offered

higher wages than work done at home.

On the other side, women factory workers usually made only 1/3 as much money as men did.

Women led reform movements to address this and other pressing social issues.

Women’s Rights

Women formed unions in the trades where they dominated.

In Britain some women served as safety inspectors in factories where other women worked.

In the U.S., college-educated women ran settlement houses.

In Britain and the U.S., women who had rallied for the abolition of slavery began to wonder why their own rights should be denied on the basis of gender.

The movement for women’s rights began in the U.S. in the 1848.

Women activists around the world joined to found the International Council for Women in 1888.

More Women’s Rights

In the U.S. and Western Europe, reformers tried to correct the problems troubling the newly industrialized nations.

Public Education and prison reforms were hot topics.

During the 1800s, democracy grew in industrialized countries even as foreign expansion increased.

The industrialized democracies faced new challenges both at home and abroad.

Reforms Spread