People worked fourteen to sixteen hours a day for six days a week.

Unlike today, workers during the Industrial Revolution were expected to work long hours or they would lose their jobs. Many workers had to work 12 hour days, six days a week. They didn’t get time off or vacations. If they got sick or were injured on the job and missed work, they were often fired.

Poor workers were often housed in cramped, grossly inadequate quarters. Working conditions were difficult and exposed employees to many risks and dangers, including cramped work areas with poor ventilation, trauma from machinery, toxic exposures to heavy metals, dust, and solvents.

What happened to skilled workers during the Industrial Revolution? They were replaced by unskilled workers.

As an event, the Industrial Revolution had both positive and negative impacts for society. Although there are several positives to the Industrial Revolution there were also many negative elements, including: poor working conditions, poor living conditions, low wages, child labor, and pollution.

Positive Effects

• It developed the economy.
• It led to the emergence of machines.
• It caused the mechanization of agriculture.
• Communication and transportation improved dramatically.
• Telegraghs and railroads emerged.
• Improvements in sanitary conditions and medical care gradually occurred, although they were quite slow.

Industrialization has enormously positive impacts on wages, productivity, wealth generation, social mobility and standard of living. During industrialization, all wages tend to rise, though the wages of some rise much faster than others.

proletariat

In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on the lives of women. They saw their role in society dramatically shift and many of them entered the workforce in order to support their families. Once in the workplace their faced discrimination and poor treatment.

The main benefit of the factory system was that it was less expensive for the company and made the workers more efficient.

A group that benefited the most in short term from the Industrial Revolution were the Factory Owners of the growing middle class. They were part of the group of people who were making most of the new money brought in by the industrial revolution.

Industrialization and Nationalism