"The function and the shape of the family were completely transformed by life in the industrial city," Clarify the statement with regard to urbanization that happened in England in the 18 century.
Answers
Agriculture improved due to the usage of new tools, fertilizers and harvesting techniques. At the improvisation made to the Steam Engine by James Watt, the industrial exports became much easier. Many of the farming lands too converted to industrial land and there were more labour power. All these were used as labourers in the Industry and foreign trade increased. Use of coal became an important one and extraction of it from the mines increased. All these required manpower.
The population in the coastal areas increased due to maritime trade. Some became rich but some suffered a lot. Working class suffered a lot. They lived in a cramped lifestyle and sent their children to work in factories. There were changes in the lifestyle of women too. They started working as domestic service. They started ignoring the farmlands. Apart from the working class, a new class known as “middle class” was formed.
This industrial revolution brought in more flow of money which was used in entertainment such as “theatres, concert halls and sports”. There were political changes and people demanded improvement in social life, education, labour rights and equality. This stage also saw the abolition of slave trade. There were changes in the electoral system and “Great Reform Act was passed by the Parliament in 1832.”
(i) Family In the 18th century: In the 18th century, (under proto- industrialisation) the family had been a unit of production and consumption as well as of political decision making
(ii) Family under industrialisation: Ties between members of households loosened, and among the working class the institution of marriage tended to break down. Women of the upper and middle daises in Britain, on Use other hand, fared increasingly higher levels of isolation, although their Lives were made easier by domestic maids who cooked, cleaned and cared for young children on low wages.
(iii) Individualism: The city no doubt encouraged a new spirit of individualism among both men and women, and a freedom from the collective values that were a feature of the smaller rural communities
(iv) Family and role of women: Men and women did not have equal access to this new urban space As women lost their industrial jobs and conservative people railed again?: their presence in public spaces women were forced to withdraw into their homes. The public space became increasingly a male preserve, and the domestic sphere was seen as the proper place for women Most political movements of the nineteenth century. such as Chartism (a movement demanding the vote for all adult males) and the 10-hour movement (limiting hours of work in factories), mobilised large number of men Only gradually did women come to participate in political movements for suffrage that demanded the right to vote for women or for named women’s right to property.
(v) Family and market: By the 20th century family now consisted of much smaller units but it became the heart of new market of goods and services and of ideas.