Part one of term paper
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 instructed women to stay home and raise children who would be virtuous assets to the repu ...

Part two of term paper
... them of their innate morality and piety; it also challenged the "domestic ideal" (p.141) for women as the factory girls were not dressing themselves as ladies. Thus, the fact that girls were moving away from home conflicted with the ideal that women should be moral and guiding homemakers, and the fact that they were not dressing like "ladies" conflicted with 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 idea ...