The Lowell mill girls were were young female workers who came to work in industrial corporations. The workers initially recruited by the corporations were daughters of propertied New England farmers, typically between the ages of 15 and 35.
The Lowell mill girls
women came to the mills of their own accord, for various reasons: to help a brother pay for college, for the educational opportunities offered in Lowell, or to earn supplementary income. While their wages were only half of what men were paid, many were able to attain economic independence for the first time, free from controlling fathers and husbands.
the early period
As the nature of the new "factory system" became clear, however, many women joined the broader American labor movement, to protest the dramatic social changes of the industrial Revolution.