Liz McIvor
Bradford Industrial Museum
Liz McIvor began work in the heritage industry in a former Cotton Mill on the Lancashire/Cheshire border and went on to study British Social History with a view to concentrating on material culture and historical interpretation in Museums and Galleries. Having worked in a number of similar roles elsewhere in the UK, she began working for Bradford Museums and Galleries in 2004, she currently manages Social History and Technology collections, and has a specific interest in objects, documents and stories which make unusual connections. Liz has a particular interest in the areas of historical study which are poorly represented by the written and object record, and would like to make connections with those studying these aspects of the 18th – 20th century. Liz is the presenter/writer of the recent BBC series and book Canals: The Making of a Nation.
Abstract
‘Jobs for the girls’…the thin line between subsistence wages and prostitution: Initial questions about the experiences of women in textiles in Lancashire and West Yorkshire
From the earliest days of the ‘Factory System’, social commentators were worried about the morality of people working in large numbers outside of traditional family units. Stories about loss of virtue amongst working women particularly abounded in Victorian fiction and were motivations for moral and social reformers.
We know that in the Industrial North, many women had to work for wages much lower by comparison to men’s, based on understanding of the division of labour and ‘skills’ along gender lines. But what did this mean for female textile workers in bad times? Were they more or less likely to become destitute and have to resort to the ‘oldest trade’?
How did periods of boom and bust affect their employability, and was there a difference between regions and specialisation in textiles – for example, between the neighbouring areas of Lancashire and West Yorkshire?