Many women left the mills due to ill health, marriage proposals, or dissatisfaction with the workplace. Poor ventilation in the mills contributed to tuberculosis or "white death" for many women. The air in the mills was filled with flying lint and fumes from whale oil lamps that hung from each loom. Brown lung disease was caused by the inhalation of cotton dust. Windows were nailed shut to maintain the humid atmosphere necessary to keep the threads from breaking. In some mills, the turnover rate was as high as 40%. Many of the girls left the mills to "go home and die." (Eisler, p. 28)

Competition with other mills brought about the destruction of the Lowell Mills. As other industrial cities developed, textile prices plummeted. Mill owners cut labor costs in order to keep dividends high.

Women were forced to look after more machines and the employers increased the speed of the machines to promote more output. Exhaustion and discontent with the working conditions soon led to protest by the workers. In 1844, the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association was formed. Petitions signed by thousands of workers helped to pass the Ten-Hour Movement. Employers found ways to avoid the ten-hour workday. Many women left the mills unsatisfied and disappointed with the mill owners’ lack of consideration for the well being of the workers. In the end the "Paternalistic Approach" which had started the mills failed the workers. Immigrants filled the available positions and the "Golden Experiment" came to an end.