Before the advent of the Industrial Revolution...

Before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, European families lived a simple and modest life; women helped in agriculture and house­hold affairs. They occasionally kept themselves busy with some small handicrafts within the household. However, the family and social life of a woman, along with her husband and children, was confined to the premises of her home, enriched by the environment of mutual love and affection.

The Industrial Revolution brought into existence large industrial complexes and heavy industries. The need for large numbers of workers resulted in the break-up of the family. Women and children had to leave the warm family atmosphere of their villages and were dragged into industrial cities and towns.

Hard and tiring working conditions, break-up of families, unlawful mixing of women with men in the work premises, the pressure of sexual urges on both sides, the erosion of familial sentiments, the exploitation of unprotected and unsheltered women by the managers of industrial houses in order to satisfy their lusts, resulting in the spread of corruption, prepared the ground for a revolution.

The women felt that the burden of life had fallen on their shoulders and they had been deprived of all sentiments and privileges of a pleasant family life. They had lost their husbands, their children, their honour, their chastity and everything else. They realized that although the war had devoured millions of men and youth, and the factory owners were in urgent need of women to keep the wheels of industries moving, yet they never attached any value to them and continued to oppress them.

Moreover, they were not even paid proper wages. Discrimination between men and women continued. The women were dragged into all types of corruption and moral pollution. The unsheltered and unprotected women, crushed under the pressure of such a life, were compelled to surrender to this forced life of indignity and sub‑human existence. They felt that they had lost everything: they had to turn the wheel, to carry the burden and yet keep their mouths shut.

They had to tolerate oppression yet abstain from protests under its crushing weight, Apparently, they were working shoulder to shoulder with men, but, in fact, they were no more than the oppressed beasts of burden fallen captive in the hands of a handful of profiteers. Every hour they had to surrender to all and sundry, suffering severe indignities for meagre wages.