The Health of the Factory Girl

Abstract

This emotive language was employed in 1885 to draw attention to one of the principal aims of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA): to care for the moral wellbeing of working girls, as they faced the temptations of the city, moving through an urban landscape full of danger to their places of work, lured by the bright lights and inappropriate pleasures away from home, itself unappealing and indifferent. The purpose of the YWCA was to rescue and befriend such girls, to domesticate them, lead them away from the ruin and perils of the city, and draw them towards Christianity. Additionally, the YWCA rapidly absorbed itself in activities directed towards improving the health of young women, an aspect of their role that has received scant attention. Such activities led the organisation to frame its work not only as being directed towards inspiring Christianity, moral rectitude, good behaviour and respectability, but also to take account of the challenging environmental conditions which confronted young women workers on a daily basis. Indeed, the above quotation was in many ways as much about environment and health as temptation and corruption. Health itself was broadly, even imaginatively, framed by the YWCA and the other girls’ clubs to be explored in this chapter, encompassing conditions in the workplace, the home environment, movement to and from work, recreation, exercise and rest, diet, hygiene and body care, and spiritual as well as physical wellbeing.

Their frivolous air excites our pity; the extreme youth of many makes us tremble to think of their perils in going to and from their work,... and we also remember that in business they may be thrown into the company of careless, worldly men In some cases the mother is indifferent and easy-going, and quite content that her child should begin to earn something ... When the factory closes, home not being a bright or inviting place, the weary girl craves some change, some amusement, and too often hurries off with a companion to a music hall or dancing saloon.¹