Hard Work - To Make Both Ends Meet

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Hard Work - To Make Both Ends Meet

My health has failed in last four months, and my doctor says I must rest for two or three months or break down entirely. How can I rest when I have not been able to save anything out of my wages? A woman's life is pretty hard nowadays, I think. (Shoe worker)

In 1888 the Maine State Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics conducted a survey to assess working conditions for women in the state's shops and factories. The bureau hired Flora Haines, of Bangor to complete the survey. She spoke with women in the workplace and handed out over six hundred questionnaires that asked about health and safety issues, wages and work hours, sanitary conditions in the boarding houses, and other matters.

At the end of the questionnaire was this statement: "Make any suggestions that you think will tend to improve your condition at work." Hundreds of women responded:

If I could have ten hours' work a day I could make a dollar and a half. But as my work runs I don't make over sixty-five cents a day. (Lining Maker, Shoes)

In this documentary the women's voices are brought to life again to tell the story of working conditions for women in the latter part of the 19th century in Maine. Using interviews, historical photos, and video from present day factories "Hard Work" details the rise of the female labor force in the state's mills and factories and explores the conditions that women had to endure both on and off the job.

I board in a private family, pay three dollars per week and washing extra. Could I have work the year round I could do well enough, but as it is, I have hard work to make both ends meet. (Clerk)



Reviews:
Video Librarian, March/April 2005 - "Women get paid less than men, but rent costs the same, and our laundry and clothing cost more." Although it might sound contemporary, this complaint comes from a 19th-century worker. In 1888, Flora Haines was hired by Maine's new Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics to hand out surveys to over 600 working women, and while some of the resulting comments may sound surprising to modern ears (one worker is unhappy not getting 10 hours a day--i.e., enough hours to make ends meet), most complaints accurately reflect the miseries of doing repetitive work in uncomfortable postures, in unsafe and unsanitary buildings, for the typical 10 hours a day, six days a week. Filmmaker Jim Sharkey's Hard Work examines the history of women working outside the home/off the farm in the late 19th century through the survey responses, exploring tensions between natives and foreign workers, between women who worked to eat and girls who worked for "pin money," and even between adults and cheaper child labor. It's a rare treasure to find so many working women's first-person accounts from this era, combined with photos--all from Maine archives--that have not been widely seen before. While centered on Maine (and to a lesser extent, the National Historic Park at Lowell, MA), the wealth of information related to women working in early industrial America is of national interest (and should not be relegated to some local history ghetto). Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Reagan)

Title #233953
Format: DVD-R
Hard Work - To Make Both Ends Meet
Streaming video trailer