19th Century Social CHanges

19th Century Social Changes

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June 1 , 2009 19th Century Social Changes : Labor and Suffrage

The end of the 19th century brought about many social reforms , ranging from women 's rights to socialism to the temperance movement . Two of the movements whose impact not only affected the time they were implemented ,but have continued to reverberate through today ,were the labor reforms and the women 's suffrage

The average adult worker in the late nineteenth century worked anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week , received the same

flat wage no matter how many hours he put in , and did this work 6 days a week . Children went to work as early as age three the standard starting age in coal mines was five and these children had a short life span- most did not make it to their twenty-fifth birthday . These children were employed in factories , as farm laborers , or were put out on the crime ridden streets of large cities to sell goods such as matches in to bring in money for their families

Reforms began in the late 1860 's which limited the work day to eight hours- the first federal law requiring this limit was passed in 1868 and was targeted for federal employees . Over the next twenty years , labor unions would help their workers achieve this same goal . It wasn 't until 1938 however , when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed that all workers gained this right

While the limiting...