Products could now be transported more easily and effectively, broadening the market and hence causing a higher demand on them. This meant that more cotton or coal and other goods had to be produced faster and for less money. The factories producing these goods needed workers. Farms did not produce enough to support the families that lived on them therefore people, also many women, who had previously been working on the farm (countryside) came to the city looking for work. What they found were these factory jobs that were very poorly paid. Many families had to move, since about 70% of the population was poor. The men were not the only people who worked as it had usually been in cities, the whole family had to work to live because wages were low and did not supply them with enough money if women didn't go to work as well. This was not such a big change for the families, since the whole family had already worked together on the farms. .
As all these families came to the city or town looking for work women and children also had to work, this is known as the start of child labour and how women started to work. Women could get work quite easily because they were obedient and accepted low wages which a man would probably not accept. Women would also be prepared to do work which men did not want. One of the main reasons why women would be taken for these jobs is that the employers would pay them much less money (about half) than they would pay a man. Another legal problem that women were faced with is that everything that women earned from working in the factories legally belonged to her husband or if not married to her father who she would then be dependant on. One problem that made the work very difficult and strenuous was the working conditions that were very harsh. In one week they would work a total of 84 hours with one "day off" which consisted of recovering from the previous week. Women's jobs during the Industrial Revolution were very mentally boring, consisting of the same thing over and over again (mass production) for example sewing the same pattern hundreds of times a day.
