Beginning of Essay
The factory workers in Lowell raised much controversy in the eighteenth century when "modernization" was taking place in New England. Two concepts were widely held in regards to women at that time. First was the concept of "republican motherhood" which instructe ....

Middle of Essay
.... the ideal image of a woman. The simple fact that women were leaving their homes to go and live in boarding houses conflicted with the ideals in the 18th century as women were seen as the chief means for creating a virtuous and pious domestic life. Women were thought to possess four innate qualities, which were submissiveness, purity, piety, and domesticity. Only in the home could a woman prosper morally and uphold her pious ways. Author Grace Greenwood wrote that a woman was like a "perpetual child" who is always "timid, doubtful, and clinginly dependent." (p.142) Thus, a woman who is not at home under the protection of a male would lose he ....