<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The social position of the factory girls had been degraded considerably in France and England . In her autobiography, Harriet Hanson Robinson (who worked in the Lowell mills from 1834--1848) suggests that "It was to overcome this prejudice that such high wages had been offered to women that they might be induced to become mill girls, in spite of the opprobrium that still clung to this degrading occupation. ..." </P> <P> The Lowell System combined large - scale mechanization with an attempt to improve the stature of its female workforce and workers . A few girls who came with their mothers or older sisters were as young as ten years old, some were middle - aged, but the average age was about 24 . Usually hired for contracts of one year (the average stay was about four years), new employees were given assorted tasks as spare hands and paid a fixed daily wage while more experienced loom operators would be paid by the piece . They were paired with more experienced women, who trained them in the ways of the factory . </P> <P> Conditions in the Lowell mills were severe by modern American standards . Employees worked from 5: 00 am until 7: 00 pm, for an average 73 hours per week . Each room usually had 80 women working at machines, with two male overseers managing the operation . The noise of the machines was described by one worker as "something frightful and infernal", and although the rooms were hot, windows were often kept closed during the summer so that conditions for thread work remained optimal . The air, meanwhile, was filled with particles of thread and cloth . </P>

Textile mills in the 19th century south involved the following except