Gendering exploitation: the use of gender in the campaign against driving in Lancashire weaving sheds, 1886–1903[1

Abstract

This article, by focusing on the Lancashire cotton weaving industry, explores the implications for gender relations of an organisation of the labour process characterised by the virtual absence of any differentiation of the workforce along gender lines. In the use made of gender by trade unions in their campaign against methods of pressurising workers to increase output, the construction of difference emerges as central to the structuring of gender relations. The article demonstrates further that conditions in cotton weaving engendered a female identity that revolved around women weavers' ability to perform a skilled job. Failure to attain this standard of proficiency at work resulted in despair, leading in extreme cases to such women committing suicide.