Page:Theresa Serber Malkiel - Woman of Yesterday and To-day.djvu/8

 hand the changed conditions compelled them to leave home and seek work outside, on the other work was scarce. They had to live, and small wages were better than no wages. The early joy with which this change was met turned to regret. Not accustomed to the turmoil of the outside world, bending under the yoke of destitution, they would have gladly returned to the old mode of existence. But, the progress of evolution does not retrace its steps.

The suffering was temporary, the longing for the past due to complete ignorance of the future.

This chaotic condition could not last long, a re-adjustment had to come. Unable to bear their hardships, too weak to combat the oppressors individually, the working women commenced to band together for mutual defense. A decade after they left the home in telling numbers they struck against low wages, long hours and the despotism of boss and foreman.

The first strike of women took place in 1825 among the cotton mill workers. Needless to say that the world was worse than thunderstruck by this occurrence. The inhabitants of the pious New England towns shut their windows and locked their doors against this unwomanly act, but their precaution was in vain—they could not shut out the sound of woman's new-born rebellion.

The instinct of self-preservation prompted woman's struggle upward, brought the "Woman Question" to life. Women had to assert themselves, since their interests were removed from the influence of the men in their families. The cotton mill