“The economy, industry and moderate wants of every member of the household”-Canniff Haight

  • Guidelines of a rural family and a working class family

Rural Family

  • Household economy
    • The whole family is the provider including mother, father, and children

Urban Family

  • Father is the provider
  • Mother is the home management
  • Children are a financial burden

Working Class Urban Families

  • Children meet the demands of city life
    • ‘Youngsters as wage earners’
    • Children 7-14
    • Work outside industrial and commercial
    • No wages but still provided importance to families

Urbanization

  • Canada’s urban population increase 3X the rate of the general population in nineteenth century
  • Came from
    • Vistums of land ehsation
    • Exclusionary inheritance customs
    • Immigrant families settling in Canadian cities hoping to escape poverty
      • Father and older sons immigrated first and family members followed as employment and living was found
  • Different environment and value system from rural life
    • Materialism, competition, standardization, consumption
  • Fear of unemployment
    • Winter increase costs of fuel and food
  • Working class homes
    • Children assume domestic responsibilities
      • Began with keep up of the home
        • Sweeping steps, washing windows, scrubbing floors
        • Making repairs to the home when the father is away
        • Gathering coal and wood for fuel
        • Fetch water from wells
        • Cultivated gardens
        • Raised and slaughtered animals
        • Sell cultivated food to other families
        • Provide care for ill family members
        • Children would fill in the role of a deceased parent
        • Older children babysat the younger children
      • Responsibilities based on sex
        • Females
          • Babysat, housekeeping
          • Tasks inside the home
        • Males
          • Tasks outside home
  • Sweatshop system
    • Tiny workplace part of home
    • Predominantly female workers
    • Produce saleable materials for large retail or wholesale outlets
    • Of 324 married females, 272 worked at home
    • Being able to watch children and work
    • Alexander Whyte Wright investigated the sweating system of canada
      • Found kids working 60 hr a week
      • Employers paid by the piece
      • Discouraged rest periods
    • Mackenzie King
      • Carried out government clothing contracts
      • Made my girls and women in homes or shops hired by subcontractors
      • Private homes had the harshest working conditions
      • Shop workers brought their work home to be finished by family members
      • Clothing contracts violating privacy of working class holmes
        • Long hours of labour for little in return
    • Middle men
      • Create harsher conditions with less pay
  • Child Workers
    • Families would rent out rooms for stay
      • Children had to clean r0oms and wash sheets
      • Delivered landry and food to other people
    • Street Trades (700 youngsters)
      • Polish shoes
      • Sold old newspapers
      • Pencils, shoe laces, fruit
      • Children begged for money
      • Teenage prostitution
      • Newsboys stood out
    • Newsboys
      • Some lived in boarding houses
      • Boys became providers of the house from this job
      • Sold newspapers on the streets
      • Earned 60 cent to 1 dollar a day
      • Lead to petty crime
      • Turned into irresponsible adults
      • 1890 streetboys needed to apply for licence
        • Require clean criminal records
  • Foster Children
    • Orphaned children were sent to farms
      • Farms aspects would develop moral and industrious habits
      • Children as servants
      • Ability to perform around the house would account to their placement
    • Girls 12 and boys 14 should become self-supporting
      • Betweens this children can work domestic services for pay
    • Servents
      • Paid 2$ to 9$ a month depending on service
  • Education
    • Kids were given free educations
    • However children didn’t go due to economic responsibilities
    • 1,632 children between 5-16 did not attend school
    • Middle and upper class children posttest regular attendance
    • 16.1% of kids worked at home
    • 27.7% were full time workers
    • Mandatory attendance laws came in place in 1871 and strengthened from 1881-1891
    • Middle and upper class children were at an advantage as working class children weren’t able to go to class
    • Began to provide working class kids the ability to go to school
    • White collar jobs grew into the 1900s
    • Education became more important in finding jobs to improve class
    • Working class families receive special consideration from school boards whose kids are economic responsibilities
    • Physical education and health programs were created in late 1880s which were missed by students who didn’t attend school
    • Sweatshop children workers or home workers had little job training which did not provide advancements in later years
    • Social legislation and reform movements were made
      • Sert standard for social conduct
    • Children’s Aid society
      • Rescues children from poverty and places them in foster care

Bibliography

Bullen, John. “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario.” Labour / Le Travail 18 (1986): 163-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25142677.