Night Work for Women

 Agnes DeLima and Hiram Myers "Night-Working Mothers in Textile Mills," photographs from the pamphlet, Consumer’s League of New Jersey and National Consumer’s League, 1920.

Courtesy, New Jersey Historical Society.

"On the Way to the Night Shift," photo by Hiram Myers Click on Image to enlarge

"Day Rest after Night in the Mill,"  photo by Hiram Myers Click on image to enlarge

 

In the 1920s, the New Jersey Consumer’s League and the National Consumer’s League, studied the working conditions of women in the state of New Jersey and, in particular, the conditions in the textile mills of Passaic. In her pamphlet, Agnes De Lima, a researcher for the League, describes women working at night in the Passaic textile mills and the conditions and laws governing women’s right to work in New Jersey, and compares these to the situation in other states. The Consumer’s League held the position that women should be protected from working the night shift because of their heavy responsibilities in the family with housework and child care. The New Jersey organization campaigned for state legislation limiting night work for women in a variety of industrial jobs.

These are photographs by Hiram Myers seen published in DeLima's pamphlet.  The photo, right, is an ironic commentary on women factory workers’ "double day" of work at home and at the mill, showing the demanding amount of housework to be done after working the night shift in a mill.