The Working Girls of New York

The sad and toil worn lives of New York's working women.

 Jacob Rils estimates that at least one hundred and fifty thousand women and girls earn their own living in New York. But this may not provide an accurate picture as many women did some form of work to supplement family income. Ironically Rils finds the fact' that some need not starve on the wages, condemns so many others to that fate.'

The work available for women was in stores, factories, sweat shops - all marked with harsh conditions and long hours. But many had to work additional hours 'at home' as depicted in this picture. One testimony states.
' I worked eleven hours in the shop and four at home.' Another, ' worked from 4 in the morning to 11 at night.' They had to buy their own thread and pay for their machines from their wages. This situation was made worse when the practice arose of out-sourcing textile work to the farmers' girls in Maine. Their 'pin-money' set the rate so much lower for the working girls of New York.

 The Working Women's Society reported “It is a known fact that men’s wages cannot fall below a limit upon which they can exist, but woman’s wages have no limit, since the paths of shame are always open to her. It is simply impossible for any woman to live without assistance on the low salary a saleswoman earns, without depriving herself of real necessities.... It is inevitable that they must in many instances resort to evil.' 

Moralists claimed when talking of  tenement conditions, that many young girls made early and improvident marriages and this was one of the prolific causes of distress of the poor. Yet, a State Labour Bureau report said ' Decency and womanly reserve cannot be maintained there - what wonder so many fall away from virtue?'

There were a number of organisations which worked to ameliorate conditions in the tenements.  Riis's sincerity for social reform has seldom been questioned, but critics have questioned his right to interfere with the lives and choices of others. His audience comprised middle class reformers, and critics say that he had no love for the traditional life styles of the people he portrayed. "Riis was quite impatient with most of his fellow immigrants; he was quick to judge and condemn those who failed to assimilate, and he did not refrain from expressing his contempt."  (Allard 62) 

However, the power of the photographs contributed to raising awareness of the actual physical conditions that people were experiencing in the tenements.

Sources

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45502/45502-h/45502-h.htm

Alland, Alexander. Jacob A. Riis: Photographer and Citizen. Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture, 1993. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis