Women and Children Coal Miners

  We have previously discussed the different occupations in which women found work in during the Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills were among the most common but one that is not most often thought of is mining. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I typically classify mining as a male profession but in the 19th century, women as well as children could be found working alongside men in the mines.
   According to several testimonies from workers at the South Wales Mine, the work was anything but a walk in the park. One woman even said that working in the mines would make a woman old by the age of 40 due to strenuous hauling of coal and workers in and out of the mines (The Coal Mines Industrial Revolution 1).
    Although women worked alongside men each had very different jobs. According to "The Coal Mines Industrial Revolution", "Teams of women were employed to use windlass to lift coal and workers. Men refused to do such work" (1). Even though both sexes had the goal of extracting coal in order for it be sold, men and women had different tasks. One aspect not mentioned in this article was what the tasks were that were specifically designated for men. Could it be like the handout Dr. Wolbrink provided us with today that said men could be overseers and supervisors while women did the "dirty work"? Were women the ones actually hauling the coal while men just monitored?
   An unbelievable fact that I found from this article was that children were employed to work in the mines. Anyone knows the dangers of working in a mine so why would one endanger the lives of children simply to make money? According to "The Coal Mines Industrial Revolution", "One six year old girl said 'I have been down six weeks and make 10 to 14 rakes a day; I carry a full 56 lbs. of coal in a wooden bucket. I work with sister Jesse and mother. It is dark the time we go" (1). As this quote shows, children were made to carry heavy loads back and forth into all hours of the night. As we saw in today's lecture, even children were exploited during the Industrial Revolution as the focus changed from health and well-being to money and progress.
    Some final questions for you all:
        -Do you think parents encouraged their children to work in such dangerous predicaments because they had no other choice, i.e. no one to watch the kids, or do you think the wages a child would bring home were the focus?
        -What jobs do you think men had in the mines compared to those of the women?
        -This article discussed that one girl was 6 when she began working, do you think children even younger than that were working in the mines?

Works Cited

"The Coal Mines Industrial Revolution." Women In World History. Last updated 2013. http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/coalMine.html.

All images from Google Images.