Daughters from working class homes were expected to contribute their paycheck to the family in order to help provide food, heat, clothing, and rent. Working daughters were usually given an allowance of less than a dollar a week. Mill girls’ earnings also helped pay off family farm mortgages, send a brother to college, and save for a dowry.
A few girls could use their income for finery or savings bank deposit books. For the "better" class of mill girls, the greatest motive for working was to pay for the education of a male member of the family. To be able to give a college education to a brother or a son allowed him to enter a profession as a gentleman.
Leisure Time
Saturday afternoons and evenings were reserved for courtship. Young men and women would crowd into a ballroom or dance hall at night. Families of the mill workers were brought together during these dances. Curfews were common for the girls as parents kept strict control over their daughters.
Self-improvement was promoted throughout the mills. Women were encouraged to attend evening schools, where German, music and botany were taught. The mill libraries and reading rooms provided the girls with the literature they enthusiastically pursued.
Many girls came to work at the mills because it offered a higher education (high school curriculum) and libraries that were unavailable to women back home. Women were only allowed to borrow books back home if they had a family tie to one of the owners of the lending institutions.
