Working Conditions and Their Results in England in the Nineteenth Century the Victorian Age

Poor working conditions had a tremendous and negative effect on the health of the working class in England in the Victorian Age. The Victorian Age (the nineteenth century) saw the rise of a large working class, where women, men, and children are spent long hours in employment in substandard conditions. Working conditions were poor, and physical mistreatment was common, as were long hours, unhealthy conditions, and poor wages. As a direct result of these poor conditions and ensuing poverty, the health of the average working class Victorian was poor.

Nutrition and hygiene were poor, and disease was common, as was malnutrition. During the Victorian age, the image of employment is often one of the male worker toiling in factories that were established during the Industrial Revolution. While this image is certainly true, as discussed later, women were also an important part of the workforce. A number of factors led to the participation of women in the workforce.

During the Victorian era, close to 80% of the population were counted as the working class, with about one in three women destined never to marry because of an unequal sex ratio. In addition, male wages were often so low that men could not adequately support a family unless their pay was accompanied by the wages of female family members.

As such, Burnett notes that "a high proportion of Victorian women, both single and married, regularly engaged in paid work." In 1851, about a Census showed that 30.2% of the labor force was made of women and girls over the age of ten. In addition, the Census likely missed millions of workers in the 'sweated' trades (washerwomen, seamstresses, and nailers, for example) where they worked out of their own homes (Burnett). For workers during the Victorian era, life was often difficult and physically grueling.

Factory work, in particular was seen as damaging to the health. Workers were often given little exercise, and kept in an overheated or contained environment. Child labor was especially difficult, as noted in an interview with William Cooper, laborer at a flax mill since age 10 during the Sadler investigation into child labor in factories.

Cooper noted that he commonly worked from 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM, that he was sometimes frequently strapped in order to stay alert, that the dusty environment affected his breathing, and that there was no time to attend school (Pearcy). Other interviews during the report noted similar conditions, with "never an hour" going by without hearing the constant crying of children, poor wages, and poor conditions. The Sadler report eventually led to the Act of 1833 that limited employment hours for women and children (Hanover College).

The rigors of Victorian work often had a profound effect on both the health and physical appearance of Victorian workers. P. Gaskell describes the individuals employed in cotton mills as "sallow and pallid of complexion," short, with slender limbs, bowed legs, lame and awkward, flat feet, and scraggly beards on men (cited in del Col). Factory work was especially damaging on children, who showed damage to the skeletal system from being constrained in factories during their growth.

Gaskell writes describes children in factories whose "spinal column bends beneath the weight of the head, bulges out laterally, or is dragged forward by the weight of the parts composing the chest" (Gaskell, cited in del Col). The poor wages of the working class were reflected in the poverty of the diet of the working class during the Victorian Era. Food was often in short supply, unhealthy, and reasonably primitive. Few of the poor had expensive ovens, and either ate cold meals, purchased hot food, or cooked over open fires.

Often, families had insufficient utensils and pots, and that sanitation was poor. Further, there was a lack of cheap fuel, and a great ignorance of hygiene and nutrition coupled with often spoiled food. The result, was a nation of "pygmies, who were undernourished, anemic, feeble and literally rickety" (Wohl; Victorian Diet). Meat, eaten relatively rarely, was often of poor quality or spoiled. In Coventry, 17% of laborers had never tasted meat, while many individuals (such as needle women and shoe makers) ate less than one pound of meat each week.

In the cities, the poor ate broxy (diseased sheep), tripe, and slink (calves born prematurely). Standard fare was often butter, bread, beer, tea, and potatoes, with occasional bacon (Wohl; Victorian Diet). Poor working conditions in factories in the Victorian era were also reflected in general problems with sanitation and disease during the era. There were a large number of problems with odor, pollution, and health hazards that stemmed from poor sewage, and poor working conditions in factories.

Typhoid was common, even among the higher classes, as were other disease, including cholera. Even the Royal Family was forced to deal with "sewers and filth diseases" and "forced to live amidst stink, and water and air pollution," while the poor were even more deeply immersed in these problems of sanitation and disease (Wohl; Sanitation and Disease). In conclusion, substandard working conditions in the Victorian Era resulted in serious health problems among the working class.

In the factories, workers faced long hours in often hazardous conditions with poor pay that condemned them to a life among the poor. Poverty itself impacted their health, as they could not afford good food, adequate housing, education, or medical care. As a result, the average Victorian worker was a poor specimen of physical health. Workers were commonly malnourished, bones and teeth were stunted and of poor health, and hours in cramped factories sometimes resulted in skeletal deformations, especially among children. Overall, the Victorian Era provides a.