<P> The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children, including many orphans . They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Sundays off . It was common for women take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work . Lack of adequate transportation, long hours and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers . Many workers, such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers, who had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers out of necessity . (See: British Agricultural Revolution, Threshing machine) </P> <P> The change in the social relationship of the factory worker compared to farmers and cottagers was viewed unfavourably by Karl Marx, however, he recognized the increase in productivity made possible by technology . </P> <P> Women's historians have debated the effect of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism generally on the status of women . Taking a pessimistic side, Alice Clark argued that when capitalism arrived in 17th century England, it lowered the status of women as they lost much of their economic importance . Clark argues that in 16th century England, women were engaged in many aspects of industry and agriculture . The home was a central unit of production and women played a vital role in running farms, and in some trades and landed estates . Their useful economic roles gave them a sort of equality with their husbands . However, Clark argues, as capitalism expanded in the 17th century, there was more and more division of labour with the husband taking paid labour jobs outside the home, and the wife reduced to unpaid household work . Middle - and upper - class women were confined to an idle domestic existence, supervising servants; lower - class women were forced to take poorly paid jobs . Capitalism, therefore, had a negative effect on powerful women . </P> <P> In a more positive interpretation, Ivy Pinchbeck argues that capitalism created the conditions for women's emancipation . Tilly and Scott have emphasised the continuity in the status of women, finding three stages in English history . In the pre-industrial era, production was mostly for home use and women produce much of the needs of the households . The second stage was the "family wage economy" of early industrialisation; the entire family depended on the collective wages of its members, including husband, wife and older children . The third or modern stage is the "family consumer economy," in which the family is the site of consumption, and women are employed in large numbers in retail and clerical jobs to support rising standards of consumption . </P>

Who used the term industrial revolution for the first time in english