User:Sydneycrain22/sandbox

Most of the labor work  that was recorded was during the industrialization time that started in the early 1800’s when workers from all other would come to big cities in America and try to make a better life for themselves and their families in return for work in factories that were very popular for the workplace. These factories were mostly clothing and other popular items that would be good to sell to a bunch of different types of people. It was all being made in these buildings owned by wealthy men that wanted to make more money and these owners of course needed workers to get the work done as fast as possible so they could make a profit as fast as possible for themselves. Most of the time the people that these jobs were aimed towards were women, Eupoean women who were immigrating from Europe and needed jobs in order to support their families. Some of them needed a job in order to help their poor families out with the bills, paying for food, clothing, etc. But women of color were not usually offered these jobs as a result of all the immrgratnion that was happening in the 1800’s. African American women were usually not able to get these jobs back then, since they were not just women, they were black women. Since this was all before the civil war African Americans were still looked down upon, as slaves, and or the help, in the south they were still enslaved and didn't have the choice to work anywhere they wanted. But in the north where salvery really wasn't practiced anymore, they still weren't able to get good jobs, they were still struggling to support their own families and no one really took them into consideration. Women of color still had to have their own support system and yet they were treated even worse than white women, who were still treated very poorly when it came to their freedom and work laws that were put in place at this time as well.

Over the course of the industrialization period women of color were mostly working in the home and doing housework for upper class families in exchange for living in the house and for food and water that was needed for them and or needed for their families. The economic developments coincided with dramatic changes in family life also at this time, making is that the number of children that were born dropped very much and kept decreasing. The amount went from 10-11 kids being born to 7-8 which is a lot lower for the first time in years. This didn't affect the labor that was still going on but when the household needed more help they would hire the children of the mother who was already working in the house to make it easy. Over 73% of african american women at this time we're working in jobs that were consisting of house work such as cooking, cleaning, making clothing, looking after the children, and or any work that was asked of them to do. In the text titled “Women's America Refocusing The Past,”in an article as well tilied “Gender at Work The Sexual Division of Labor During World War II  it states “ Jobs were also highly segregated in the electrical industry during the war” (Page 537). This shows how even in a time of need these companies don't even want women to work for them.These jobs were considered service jobs that were made to be serving others that needed the help, for example rich upper class white people who didn't want to do work themselves or were too busy to do and needed “the help” to do it for them but the pay was not even as close to what other whte women were being paid in the factories, which was the next level of work that women were able to do.

These women had to somehow put food on the table and although there were no labor laws put in place that meant that their  pay was not the greatest. On the daily African American women were paid about $0.62 cent for a whole days worth of work that they would do in and outside of the home. That is up to five times less the amount of money that women were making in the factories and yet they would go on strike to make more, when these women didn't even have that as an option. They couldn't ask for more pay because they were at the time lucky they got anything at all, some days or most often they wouldn't get paid at all but they would live in the house with their boss and do anything they needed all day and all night long. The pay was included while living there in food and water, even though it was very little amounts of scraps and or leftover it was still something that they needed to do, eat and drink in order to stay alive and keep working. They also had running water and a place to shower and brush their teeth which was not always available for other African Americans at this time. Also to keep in mind some of these women in other areas were slaves and didn't have anything let alone the choice to work for upper class white people. Even though the work was hard for them and they didn't really get paid what they should have gotten paid it was still a place to sleep and overall a place to go too, and so back then with almost no support from anyone else they all needed that, one way or another.

As time went past from slavery after the civil war in 1865, slaves gained freedom and from that they were able to break out of the only household work that they were able to only get, but that wasnt the case for all of women. Most of them stayed where they were because getting jobs still in the south was hard since they were still colored. Even though slavery was over rascim sitll exsited and that made it tough for any person of color in the south to get a good paying job. Some African Ameican men were off to do bigger and better things but for the women there wasn't much for them to do as a result of their gender boundaries along with the racial ones that were developed as well during this time. Some women worked in other low income places like shops, or churches that were being built, but none of them had a lot of options just like before the war. Mothers who were brought up at this time usually stayed home while the father went out and worked whatever job that he had at that time and that women would become a stay at home mother how other women were during this time period leading into the early 1900’s. From the website titled “Black Perspectives,” by the author Karen Cook Bell she states, “African American men and women suffered greatly and died in unprecedented numbers from 1861-65. However, the vast majority of former slaves did live to see freedom.”  This shows how even with hard work all African Americans were still looked at as the bottom of all classes.It wasn't until African American women had a role model to look up too that they wanted to speak out and have the same rights as a man did as well looking aside from race. In the late 1890’s to 1900’s role models such as Madame CJ Walker came out and made a huge brand all on her own as a woman of color. This set an example for a bunch more women and especially women of color to step up and try to make their dreams come true, or at least have some freedom to do what they wanna do. Although this was in the north, so through the southern states they still felt in a way trapped in the same forms of labor forces since no one else would accept them as anything else but workers in the worst work possible. Even with the freedom to not be owned by other white people, white people still held the most if not all the power and still separated the two races making it even harder to find work but then on top of all that women and men were viewed non-equal therefore the properties were cut into less than half.

In the early 1900’s African American women started to gain some more work that was in factories and other retail jobs, but they would get less pay then the “average” white women or white people in that same field. They were still treated very poorly at this time and still didn't have the opportunities to move up in the social ladder, men on the other hand would have the chance to work at more high scale places and got more money as the main breadwinner in their families. This was one of the things that all women had in common at the time, being the one that makes less money and being treated less than a man in comparison. Even though protests were happening and more jobs were opening up it took a long time to get there and it would take longer in order for segregation to be gone in the southern states and some northern ones. At this point more African American were working then staying at home, and most of the jobs were not the best, such as cooking, cleaning, housework, all the same work that no one else really wanted to do. In the north more jobs were popping up that were in higher fields that they took average of and at this point they even started to start their own business, they were gaining more and more in the labor field and working in more cable jobs that were side by side with other white people. During the depression in the 1950-60’s  this lead to the spurred rise of African American activism, which then laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, this changed the course work as well as the jobs that were available for even the women.  From the website “ Economy Policy Institute,” by the author “ Nina Banks,” she stated “Because of discriminatory employer and government policies against black men and women, black mothers with school-age children have always been more likely to be in the labor force compared with other moms. “ This shows that on top of all that women had to face while working they also were mothers when going back home. African American men and women also moved to the government during this time in hopes of making changes and having someone speak for them, and they even had  a good chance to be in the Prestinal Cabinet.

In the late 1980’s-1990’s with segregation being almost completely gone, and with the two races being together in society, there was still racism. Even today and probably for a long time after there will always be people who are racists and more favorable to their own white superiority, which did affect African Americans especially women in the labor force. Since some work places and companies wanted a good “image” they only wanted white people, white women to work in their fields with their jobs. This happened to both men and women and it was something they had to work around, they had to work hard for good jobs and even then they were not getting paid the same as men. As a result more black owned companies started to come up and they would channel and put ads out towards other black people and people of color which lead to their success as a result. African Ameican women came from a long way and are still today and will in the future, they are now able to work in any field they want too and have all the rights to be as power as a man is, even when it comes to the government. They have made so many changes and have changed history for the better with all that hard work they did from slaverly to now,  it has finally paid off and hopefully will continue to in the future.