Industrial Home Work in the United States: Historical Dimensions and Contemporary Perspective

The role that women workers have played throughout the industrialization of the United States has largely gone unrecognized. This article takes an historical look at one important form of labor, industrial home work, and traces its development and resurgence in its present day forms. Industrial home work, or wage labor in the home, has its roots in the putting out system or cottage industries. In the United States, such labor began with the commission system in textile production, and as such, was almost wholly female labor. And, since its origins, all the major forms of home work which have appeared in other industries have also been based on female employment. This article argues against the view that home work was a transitory phase in the industrialization process, and attempts to show that it has played an integral role from the very beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. To date, this wage labor in the home done by women has remained invisible and outside the discussions on industrialization in the United States. Until home work is integrated into these discussions, however, our understanding of the industrialization process in the United States will remain incomplete.